Mizukage's Bodyguard
by foxsage
Summary: Shortly after the Kage meeting, everything was starting to settle down in Konoha. Naruto, now a chunin of the Hidden Leaf, was summoned by the Hokage to escort and become the Mizukage's bodyguard. What will happen to his future now? Naruto/Mei pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**Mizukage's Bodyguard**

**Chapter 1: Oh joy, here comes the Mizukage**

**Summary: **Shortly after the Kage meeting, everything was starting to settle down in Konoha. Naruto, now a chunin of the Hidden Leaf, was summoned by the Hokage to escort their guest, the Mizukage back to her village. But that's not the only thing; he had to stay as her personal bodyguard for 2 MONTHS!

AN: Hi guys, I got a new idea for a new story, and uh... here it is. Naruto gets to become the bodyguard of the Mizukage. How cool is that!

The main PAIRINGS will be, obviously NaruMei (my new favourite pairing). And hope you guys enjoy it :)

PS: I put Mei a couple years younger than her real age, because I wanted her to be a bit closer in age to Naruto, so Naruto is 16 years old, and Mei would be 25 years old. Hope you don't mind. Also note that this story starts after the Kage-summit arc.

ENJOY!

**xXx**

Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, the saviour of the village Konohagakure, the youngest to master the art of the Toads, and probably the only one alive that dared to stand up against the Godaime Mizukage. The young blond, age 16, stood in front of the well respected Mizukage. It wasn't his fault that he accidentally touched her ass; his hands just acted on its own, without him even knowing. "Look here, old-hag. I said I was sorry, so no beef," Naruto said flatly. He didn't really care what the woman would do to him; it wasn't like she was some insanely strong kunoichi, right? The fact was, he didn't even know who this woman was.

The Mizukage gasped as she heard the young teen's reply. She was not an old-hag! For god's sake, she was only twenty-five! "What did you just say, brat! For your information, I'm only twenty-five!" she stated. "And if I'm sooo old, why did you bother touching my ass!"

The two were currently arguing in the middle of the once shopping district of Konoha – Now it was in the rebuilding stage, just like the rest of the place. There was a big crowd around them, currently betting on who would win the fight, if there was one. "Look, I said it was an accident, just calm down and move on." Naruto really wasn't going to fight a girl. Actually, he wasn't in any mood to fight.

Mei sighed, the blond pervert in front of her was right. Maybe it was just an accident, and she was just overreacting. "Fine, I'll let this slide, but if you ever touch me again! I'll melt your balls off!" Her tone was serious, and the glare she gave was pretty scary.

Naruto gulped at the woman's warning. He immediately stepped aside as the woman walked off. He sighed in relief as the auburn-haired woman was out of sight. There was no denying it, that woman was hot! And with that blue-dress just barely hanging from her shoulder, revealing A Lot of cleavage, it would make anyone touch her ass. But of course, he touched it by accident – Though it did feel good; her butt was firm and soft.

He shivered from all the perverted thoughts, but shook all of it out. He really shouldn't be thinking about this stuff; he was really starting to become a pervert. But at the mention of the word pervert, made him remember his old sensei, the old ero-sennin.

The blond then continued on his way to his temporary sleeping section. Since most of the buildings were destroyed (including his apartment), people had to sleep in tents at a designated place. And his one wasn't far from where he was now. The tent itself wasn't that big, or small. It was just medium size to fight one person and most of his belongings.

Naruto quickly entered the tent, and felt the goose bumps on his arms disappeared. He missed his old orange and black jacket, and his other orange clothing. The thing was, all his clothes were destroyed during the Pein invasion, and he was left with only one-pair of his orange clothing, but the last pair was currently being washed, and he was left with nothing to wear. Luckily though, Kakashi gave him one of his black tank tops that he used to wear when e was in ANBU, and a standard black ninja pants.

The clothes did look good on him, but winter was coming closer, and this type of clothing won't keep him warm; he also felt so 'revealed' wearing it. He hoped that the shinobi clothes store would be back up and running before the snow comes, or he would probably freeze. He sighed at the thought of winter as he took off his Konoha chunin vest. Yes, he was a chunin now – he got promoted when by Tsunade when she heard about his victory over Pein.

Naruto calmed down a bit as he rested his body on the mattress. It wasn't as comfortable as his bed, but at least it was soft and clean. He was laying on his stomach with his head turned to the right. His eyes were currently staring at a particular wooden box. It was left behind by his dad, the great Yondaime Hokage. Tsunade gave it to him as a gift for his promotion to chunin.

Naruto got off the mattress and went to pick up the box. He had opened it a week ago and red everything inside. There was a letter that his dad had wrote to him before he fought the Kyuubi, it pretty much explained why he sealed the Kyuubi into him and about all the other stuff in the box – It included the special three pronged kunai that made his father special, a scroll which included all the jutsu his father created, and sealing scroll that contained his dad's other favourite weapon.

Naruto was planning to practice all the jutsu that his father left him, mostly the Hiraishin, during his break. He had ordered a hundred of the special-kunai to be produced, and the owner of the shop said that it would be ready in a week's time, which would be tomorrow, since he ordered it a week ago. And in the mean time, he was just reading about the concept of the Hiraishin and all its mechanics, so it would be easier for him to do, since he knew how it worked.

**xXx**

"Mizukage-sama, the Hokage is awaiting your arrival, please follow me" An ANBU stated.

Mei smiled and nodded at the ANBU, "Thank you, Anbu-san," she replied cheerfully, but inside, she wasn't smiling. Apparently, the young teen before was still in her mind. She still felt like melting the teen's balls off for touching her butt. Because really, she does not like people to touch her ass without her consent, though the boy was pretty handsome, not to mention that he had some nice muscles.

Mei inwardly groaned. She couldn't believe she was still thinking about the guy, and she was thinking bad things...things that could only happen in bed. And for some odd reason, she liked the way the blond teen touched her ass, and again, for some odd reason, she wanted more. She had to admit it; the young blond had a nice hand.

She followed the ANBU until she arrived at a partly destroyed Hokage tower. It was still under construction, but was close to finish, since the building was one of the places that the Konoha council said had to be up and standing first; though she wondered if the Hokage was using the building right now. Her question was answered when the ANBU took a left turn to a path that led to a big tent.

"This is the temporary office for the Hokage, hope that it does not disturb you in any way," The ANBU said as they reached the entrance. He stopped in front of the entrance and made a gesture for her to go in. "Please enter," he said politely.

"Thanks again, Anbu-san." She gave him a small smile before entering. Inside the tent, Mei immediately bowed her head slightly as she was in the presence of the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade Senju. She was sitting comfortably on her chair while busy reading a particular form. "Hokage-sama," Mei greeted.

The Hokage looked up and let a small smile out. "Uh, nice to see you that you accepted my invitation, Mizukage-sama, I would really like to talk to you about something."

"It's my pleasure that you invited me here, and I am eager to know what was so important that you insist that I come." About a week ago, Mei received a letter from the Konoha that said the Hokage wanted to have a talk with her. "So, what is it?"

"I believe you remember your injured shinobi, Ao?" Tsunade started.

"Yes, he is still in the hospital. But not in a very good condition."

"Well as you know, the shinobi that almost caused Ao his life was identified, and I feel as though I have to repay you for that, since Ao-san was injured by one of our own," Tsunade explained calmly.

"Repay me?" Mei questioned. "How, may I ask, are you going to repay me?"

Tsunade clamped her hands together and leaned back into her chair. "Well, I would like to send one of our shinobi with you as your personal bodyguard, since I believe Ao-san was your previous one.

Mei laughed, why would she want another bodyguard? She could handle herself perfectly, and it's not like she couldn't take another one of her own shinobi to become her personal bodyguard. "And why would I want that, I could ask one of my own men to become my bodyguard," she stated with a smirk.

"Well," Tsunade started, a grin appearing on her face. "But can your other men match your previous one in power and skill?"

That hit her hard. What the Hokage said was true; no one in her village was as strong as Ao, except her, of course. But who in this village was as or stronger than Ao? "And who is this person?"

Tsunade's grin turned into a smirk. "I believe you have heard about Uzumaki Naruto?"

Mei gasped in surprise. Uzumaki Naruto, the hero of this village, the one that had beaten Pein, and also the apprentice of the dead Toad sage. She had never seen this person before, but people told her that he had a special aura around him. "You can't be serious! This Naruto person, he must be important to your village? Are you just going to let him go?"

"Well, it would be a big blow for us to lose one of our greatest shinobi, but it seems that the Akatsuki is currently in hiding again, and probably won't attack any time soon."

Tsunade was right, the Akatsuki were currently in hiding, and from what her spies said, the Akatsuki won't attack any time soon. But still, why would the Hokage let one of their best go? There must be another reason, "But what is the real reason, Hokage-sama?" Mei pushed. "I know that you wouldn't be giving me your best shinobi for only that reason."

Tsunade sighed; her smirk disappeared from her face, leaving only a sad frown. "Mizukage-sama, do you remember about five years ago, you came here asking for help from the Sandaime?"

Yes, Mei remembered that. She had come here asking for assistance to overthrow the rogue Yondaime Mizukage, but unfortunately, the Sandaime Hokage declined, because they had another thing to worry about. "What about it?" Mei asked with a frown. She didn't really like the memory of it, since she actually had to beg to previous Hokage, and it was embarrassing.

"Well, it seems, one of the wishes left behind by the Sandaime was to help Kirigakure. Believe it or not, that old man felt sympathy for you and promised that he would help you when this village's problem was solved," Tsunade explained. "And my reason for this is because I want to grant his wish, and hope to make a true alliance with you."

"An alliance?" Mei repeated, quizzical at the choice of words. "Aren't we already in an alliance?"

Tsunade chuckled, "Mizukage-sama, you must remember, the alliance that we are in now won't last. It would only stand until the Akatsuki are taken care of, after that, the other villages would go on their separate ways," Tsunade said.

"So you mean, you want to become an alliance with us like the alliance you have with the sand?"

Tsunade nodded, "I see now that you understand the situation, so? How about it?"

Mei smiled and nodded, "I see this as way of making my village strong, since you know, my village is still recovering,"

"So is it a yes?" Tsunade asked, her eyes glinting with hope.

"I accept you offer, Hokage-sama. But I have a question, how long is this Uzumaki person going to be my bodyguard?"

"Well, until your previous bodyguard recovers, Naruto would fill in his place."

"But that would be at least 5 months; Ao-san's injury is very serious, as you know. His spine was badly damaged; most of his organs were badly punctured, not to mention that his brain was badly damaged. And even after he recovers, he wouldn't be able to straight away come back to his shinobi life, he would have to do a lot of rehabilitate training so his body would become fit as before, and that would take a whole year." One and a half year? That was an awfully long time.

"I know that already. I did my calculation and I figured that he could become the Ambassador there for Konoha, while also your personal bodyguard."

Mei sighed in defeat. Seemed like the Hokage whipped up a really good deal, "I guess I have to accept. But may I see this man first?"

Tsunade smiled, "Of course, I already told my Anbu to call him here. He should be here in a few minutes, believe it or not, Mizukage-sama, but I haven't told him about this yet. I was hoping that he would have come at the same time with you, but I guess I have to explain it again." Tsunade sighed and shook her head. "But please, take a seat." Tsunade pointed with her eyes to leather coated chair to the left of the tent.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama."

**xXx**

Naruto groaned as he was suddenly disturbed. He cracked his right eye open to see what the problem was, and right in front of his face was his sensei, Kakashi Hatake, the famous Copy-nin. "Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto mumbled his brain still foggy from the sleep. Then, both eyes snapped open. "Kakashi! What the hell are you doing here?" The blond exclaimed, immediately jumping out up from his bed.

"The Hokage summoned you, I think it's for a mission," answered the masked sensei.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Mission?" Naruto repeated, confused. "But I'm on break. Why would I have a mission now?"

Kakashi sighed, "I don't know Naruto, but it seems pretty important. I think she is going to give an S-rank mission," Kakashi said flatly. Though it affected Naruto big-time.

Naruto immediately jumped onto his feet, "Are you serious? And S-rank? I didn't know chunin get S-rank missions," Naruto said while dressing up. He quickly put on his chunin vest, then his utility belt which held his weapons pouch. After that, he took the special box out and unrolled one of the scrolls. He did a couple of hand-signs before slamming his palm onto the centre – Immediately after that an object appeared from it; one was a special trench coat that the Fukasaku had made for him. It was similar to his old red trench coat, but this time, it had a high collar and the kanji for toad at the back. It still had the black fire designs on the bottom, and the short sleeves.

He quickly put it on and took the second object from the scroll; a sword. It wasn't just any sword; it was the sword that his father used to use when he was in Anbu. It was a katana, but it was slightly longer than the usual 80cm length. The sword also had its hilt wrapped in beautiful glossy black silk, intertwined with yellow silk.

He wrapped the sword around his back with a smile. Naruto wasn't that good in using swords, but this sword somehow felt comfortable in his hands, like he was meant to use it. Lastly, he put on arm guards for protection. "Wow..." Kakashi gasped. "Nice attire."

"Thanks Kaka-sensei. So do I have to go now?" he asked.

Kakashi sweat dropped. He might dressed like a professional shinobi, but his brain needed working. "Yes Naruto," he breathed. "You have to see her now."

"See ya then, Kaka-sensei!" Naruto said with the famous grin of his before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

**xXx**

Tsunade looked up as Naruto appeared in a puff of smoke. She's got to say, the boy looked good in his new attire, even the Mizukage was surprised to see him. "I'm here baa-chan!" Naruto exclaimed. "So what's the problem he-" He stopped when he realized that there was someone else in the tent. And that person felt familiar. His eyes widened in realization – He whipped his body around and pointed a finger accusingly at her, "YOU!"

Mei, also up standing up, pointed at the blond at the same time he did. "YOU!" she yelled, though it was at the same time as him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Naruto asked roughly.

"Don't tell me you're the Uzumaki?" She groaned in annoyance.

"SO what if I'm the Uzumaki? What does it have to do with you, old-hag!"

Mei gasped; this kid had broken the line! "YOU'RE DEAD! I'm GONNA MELT YOUR BALLS OFF!" She straight away went for the kill and leaped at him.

Naruto saw this and took out a kunai at lightning speed. But before contact, they were both pushed away by the other shinobi in the room, the one and only Tsunade Senju. She was now pissed, and everyone knew that when she was pissed, bad things tend to happen.

Both Naruto and Mei were on the ground, groaning. "Uhhh, that hurt baa-chan," Naruto said while rubbing the back of his head.

Mei remained quiet as she pushed herself up. She glared at Naruto as she stood up, but then her eyes softened at Tsunade. "I'm sorry Tsunade for my behaviour. It was inappropriate of me."

"Don't worry Mizukage-sama," Tsunade said. "It's Naruto here that needs to learn some manners."

Naruto quirked an eyebrow as he heard Mizukage. "She's the Mizukage?" Naruto asked, his face showing total cluelessness.

Tsunade sighed, "Yes Naruto, she's the Mizukage. I suggest you apologise to her."

"Fine," Naruto sighed in defeat. He turned to the Mizukage and bowed, "I'm sorry for my rude behaviour, Mizukage-sama."

For some odd reason, Mei blushed when the blond apologised He seemed to look mature when he acted like a gentlemen. "Don't worry about it; just don't call me names anymore."

Tsunade breathe out calmly, "Good. Now that that's settled, let's get back to business." She went back to her seat behind the desk, "Alright, Naruto, I have a special mission for you."

Naruto's eyes started to sparkle as he heard her. "Sweet! So what is it?"

Tsunade grinned, "You see, I've made a deal with the Mizukage here, and part of it is for you to become her bodyguard. This is an S-rank mission, I expect you to complete this mission with your life."

"Me? Her bodyguard? Why?"

"Because I chose you. You are the only one capable of doing it," Tsunade explained. "You're only going to be gone from Konoha for two years."

Naruto almost choked on his own saliva. "Two years? That's a long mission?"

"Oh come on Naruto, think of this as an opportunity to test your skill. You'll use it more than you ever use it hear, trust me." Tsunade finished with a smirk.

A lot of things passed through his brain. One of them was that this would be the perfect opportunity for him to train, since he had more free time. "I'll accept!" Naruto said eagerly. "When do we leave?"

Tsunade looked at Mei who was currently having a battle with herself. "So, Mizukage-sama, when are you leaving Konoha?"

Mei was currently talking to herself about Naruto. She didn't know why, but she suddenly felt attracted to him. If only Naruto was a bit more mature, then she could probably accept him. "Are you listening, Mei-sama?"

"Oh, sorry about that. Can you please repeat the question?" Naruto shook his head at this, causing her to give him a death glare.

"I asked you when you are leaving Konoha." Tsunade repeated.

Mei laughed at herself for not listening, "I'm sorry about that, but anyway, I'm thinking of leaving straight after this, since I have other business to take care of, back at Kiri."

"Today?" Naruto repeated. He didn't want to leave so soon, he had to get his kunai tomorrow. "Are you serious?"

"Well, I did say to my village that I would return by next week, and if I leave today, then I'll be back on the exact day as expected," Mei explained, "So you see, I have to leave today."

Tsunade sighed, "Well Naruto, seems like there's no choice. I'll give you 30 minutes to pack all your stuff, and then you can meet Mei-sama at the gate," She looked at Naruto, waiting for conformation. "So? What are you waiting for? Get moving!"

Naruto sighed and nodded, "I'll get going," Naruto muttered, but before he was about to shunshin himself back to his tent, he saw the glare Tsunade gave him. Naruto raised an eyebrow at this. "What?" he mouthed.

Tsunade used her head to gesture to the Mizukage. Naruto saw what she was trying to do and nodded. He turned to the Mizukage and bowed, "I'll see you later, Mizukage-sama." He said with a genuine smile before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

The blush came back to her as she saw that smile of his. She felt her heart skipped a beat from it. "T-thank yo-you for th-this Hokage-sama." She didn't know why she just stuttered, but her head was starting to get a bit dizzy. It was also getting pretty hot in here, she could sweat running down her neck, down her cleavage.

Tsunade stood up and bowed, "Thank-you for your cooperation, I'll make sure that you won't regret this."

Mei tried to smile, but she only managed a small one. "I'll be leaving now," She then walked out of the tent and the followed the Anbu that had escorted her here to escort her back to the gate.

Tsunade's smile faltered as she was left alone. She didn't like this idea of her much, but she knew she needed to, for the sake of Naruto's safety. From what she had heard about Akatsuki, they were probably concentrating their attacks to Kumogakure and here. Since Tsunade knew that they were after the Jinchuurikis. At least this way, she could achieve three things with one sacrifice: One, she would be able to keep Naruto safe. Two, was that she could get a solid alliance with Kirigakure. And third, Naruto could learn more things with this experience.

She then felt a hand on her shoulder. She slightly turned her head to look at the visitor. It was Kakashi. He had the usual expressionless face, but she could see approval in his eyes. "You did the right thing, Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade sighed. "I hope I did, Kakashi."

**xXx**

Naruto sighed as he packed all his stuff. He didn't have much, since most of his stuff was destroyed. The only thing he had now was the box that contained all his dad's possession, the clothes that Kakashi had given him, his ninja gear, and his sword. That was pretty much it. He guessed that he would be travelling light. Because really, he didn't even need a backpack, all his possessions fit into just 2 scrolls.

Now, all he had to do was ask the owner of the weapons store to see if it was ready, because he hoped it was; if it didn't than he would probably be a couple of kunai short. He put the two scrolls into his pouch securely, and made sure to close the pouch properly. He then stood up and tightened his head-band before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

A second later, he was in the middle of the shinobi district, where you can find everything you need for a shinobi life. He walked into one particular tent that he knew was the weapons store. As soon as he was inside, he could smell all the steel from the weapons. "Ah Naruto, I see you're back. You came here at the right time," said the shop owner. He was already in his fifties, but he still had a strong body. "I just finished your order."

_Thank god!_ Naruto yelled in his head. Seemed like everything was going smoothly for him, though he wished he had more time to say goodbye to his friends. "Here it is!" exclaimed the old man as he took out a scroll from a rack full of them. "This is yours, two hundred special kunai, done." He threw the scroll to Naruto who caught it easily.

Naruto bowed to the old man, "Thank you, grandpa. And here's the money," Naruto then took out a certain amount of money and left it on the counter. "See ya later!"

As he exited the shop, he was suddenly bumped into Kakashi. "Ahhh, sorry Kaka-sensei. Didn't see you there," Naruto said while scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"Ah, don't worry Naruto. I came here to give you something," Naruto stopped his little ministration as he heard his sensei. "Here, take this," he handed Naruto a familiar orange book. "I heard that you are going to leave the village for quite some time, so, I'm giving you my favourite Icha-Icha book to you."

Naruto took the book slowly, his brain still registering the words his sensei had said. "Thank-you, sensei. I'll make that I'll read it, no matter how perverted it is, I'll still read it." He then suddenly hugged Kakashi. He didn't know why he did it, but he felt that he had to. "Thanks for everything, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi was awe-struck for a second, but finally replied the hug. He patted Naruto on the shoulder and murmured that he was proud of him. "Stay safe Naruto, this time, I'm not there to safe you."

Naruto pushed himself off Kakashi and laughed, "I will, sensei. I'll remember your teachings."

Kakashi then let out his famous eye-smile. "Well, you better go then. You don't want to be late, do you?"

"Yeah, I hope to see you soon, sensei!" Naruto yelled out as he started running to the Main Gate.

**xXx**

Mei stood with her arms crossed over her chest. She had been waiting for minutes now. The little brat was supposed to be here ages ago. She tapped her foot impatiently and felt her rage grow. She didn't like to wait for anyone, she really hated it. Not to mention that she had to wait for some brat. _Where is he!_ Mei yelled in her head _I swear if he isn't here in the next ten seconds, I'm gonna leave him here!_ And she waited, and waited.

Ten seconds had passed, and there was no sign of her so called 'bodyguard'. So as she had told herself, she was going to leave without him! But as soon as she took her first step out of the village, she could feel someone behind her. "Going somewhere, Mizukage-sama?" Naruto asked with a smirk. "I hope that you weren't going to leave your bodyguard, were you?"

She turned to him with a smirk of her own, "Well, I was actually getting a bit worried about you, I thought _you_ had left before me. So that's why I tried to leave." She said with a sly grin.

Naruto almost growled when he saw that grin, it was...sexy. He cleared his throat in an attempt to restore his concentration. "I believe we are behind schedule, we should leave now," Naruto said, sounding a bit more 'professional'. He then started walking ahead but stopped when Mei didn't move. "Coming, Mizukage-sama?"

Mei shook her head in amusement, "Yeah, yeah. Coming!" She quickly caught up to him before the two started walking. As they were walking, they started to introduce themselves more to each other, and for some odd reason, Mei felt more and more attracted to the young teen.

With Naruto, he felt something spark inside of him when his skin accidentally touched her. This feeling caught him by surprise, but he didn't know what it meant.

**xXx**

**END CHAPTER 1**

**And there it is. Naruto has left Konohagakure and became the bodyguard of the sexy Mizukage! What will happen next? Tune it to find out :)**

**Hope you guys liked it. And I'll try and continue this if there actually readers out there interested. PM me if you have any questions or ideas you want to share :)**

**NEXT CHAPTER: Kirigakure, city of the mist!**

**REVIEW!**

**PEACE!**

**-FOXSAGE-**


	2. Enter Kiri, village of the Mist!

**Mizukage's Bodyguard**

**Chapter 2: Kirigakure, city of the mist!**

**AN: **I'm back with the second chapter guys :) And from all the support you guys gave me, it just made me wanna write the whole day, and sooo, this chapter is the result of it. And if you guys found the last chapter to be rushed then don't worry, it was intended to be rushed – Though I've changed the pace to a steady one for this chapter and all from now on.

And now to this chapter – this is when the adventure really starts XD!

**xXx**

One thing about travelling through thick mist was that you can't see, the second thing that you should expect was that it would be cold, colder than what Naruto would've liked, and third – You couldn't see DAMN SHIT! "You know, I get why you guys called it the hidden mist, but why the hell do you have to make it so thick?" Naruto complained. It had been four days since they left Konohagakure, and had only gotten off a boat a couple of minutes ago. "I think a baby could suffocate from all this mist you people make."

Mei sighed in annoyance. Maybe the mist was a bit thick, but it was one of their main defence mechanisms. If they were under attack from outside, the enemy shinobi won't know where to go, they might just end up accidentally running into a tree and die. "What do you expect, Naruto. If we say we have mist, then we have mist, lots of em!"

The fact still remained, he couldn't see anything, and it annoyed the hell out of him. He had to actually hold onto Mei so he wouldn't run into a tree, because the first thing that happened when they had left the boat was Naruto colliding with a damn tree. It wasn't that he didn't like to hold Mei's hand; it was just that he was uncomfortable with it. He felt as though he was invading her personal 'space'. "So how far is Kiri, now?"

"Not far, we just have to walk up a bunch of Mountain paths, then a bit more walking, and we should be there," Mei said. She was pissed with herself for bringing up the 'holding hands' idea. It wasn't because she was irked by him; it was just that she didn't feel comfortable with someone holding her hand. Though she had to admit it, Naruto's hand was pretty warm, and it comfortably covered her hands. And she knew there was no other way than this, if they didn't do this, Naruto would either wind up lost, or collide with another tree. "I think we should reach Kiri in about five hours or less."

Naruto though wasn't listening; he could already sense a bunch of Kiri Anbu surrounding them. It was expected, since it would be weird to see your Kage travelling with a mysterious nin without any notice. He paused walking for a second, just enough time for his to go into sage-mode. He could now tell very clearly where all the Anbu were hiding. There was five on his right side, and five on the other. And it seemed they left two at the rear.

Mei seemed to notice Naruto's sudden immobility, and she realized that he had suddenly changed. His chakra felt...different, and he also looked different. His eyes were yellow instead of blue, and his pupil was in a different shape, like ones of the toads. Is this the form of a sage? But why the sudden change? Then she realized what the problem was. She could now identify each of the Anbu around her. She smiled to herself, seemed like Naruto was more cautious than she thought. Maybe all his goofiness was just a cover. People could easily underestimate him if he continued on with this 'mask' of his. "Don't worry Naruto; they won't attack you or me. They're one of my Anbu team."

"I figured that out," Naruto answered flatly. He didn't like how the Anbu reacted with his arrival; they're chakra felt...cold. "Though they seem to already hate me," he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Mei chuckled, "I guess they don't like strangers holding their Mizukage's hand with such intimateness," she stated, though blushed at what she just said. She was known to be flirty in her village, but she never really took it seriously, it was all for jokes. Maybe the Anbu were jealous of this? Maybe they all had a crush on her? She giggled at that. "Anyway, the mountain path is just up ahead. We're not far from Kiri, now."

Naruto sighed in relief. He was starting to get a bit tired from all the walking. He could now also see the mountain line up ahead. Naruto guessed that it was another one of Kiri's defence, as it would act like wall around the village. It was a smart choice of terrain, it was actually better than Konoha, if he had to be truthful. As the two got closer and closer to the village, Naruto became more and more relaxed. He had finally dropped his sage-mode a couple of minutes back, and was now thinking about food. In all the rush, Naruto had forgotten to pay one last visit to Ichiraku, he had also forgotten to pack food for the journey, and so, the result was no food for five days.

Five hours later, as Mei had estimated, they could see the entrance to Kiri just right ahead, just a couple hundred metres more. "I guess we're here," Naruto breathed out. His face expression was now neutral, and he seemed relieved.

"Yeah, I guess we are, Naruto." Mei replied.

"But I have one question for you, and I want you to answer this truthfully," Naruto's voice was suddenly serious, and a bit...grim. "Do you, or do you not have ramen here?"

Mei tried to hold her laughter back as she heard his question. Ramen? So Naruto's favourite food was ramen. Interesting. Her emerald green eyes started to sparkle with deviousness. She wonder what would happen if she said no? "Ramen? What is it?" Mei said, acting to be clueless. "I haven't heard of it before." Her face showed pure innocence and pure cluelessness.

Naruto immediately stopped walking as he heard her. His eyes were wide with shock; his mouth was slightly gaping from surprised. Did she just say that she hadn't heard of ramen before? But if she didn't know what ramen was, and she was the Mizukage, then that meant there was no such thing as ramen in Kiri. Naruto could've almost died of a heart-attack. "You can't be serious?" _Don't tell me baa-chan sent me to a place with no ramen!_

Mei patted him on the head with a grin. "Oh relax, of course there's ramen here," Naruto sighed, letting out all the tension from his throat.

"Thank god," Naruto said. "I thought you were serious." The two then continued walking. As they got closer, they could see a big crowd at the entrance. "I see you have big welcome-back-home party," Naruto murmured into her ear.

She chuckled, "Nah, I think they're there to welcome you. Since you are the unexpected guest."

Naruto crossed his arm and a neutral expression covered his face. "Let's see how that turns out." Naruto could feel a lot of Anbu level shinobi hiding in the trees, and there seemed be a lot of Jonin shinobi at the gate. It looked like there was no escape for him.

As the two arrived at the gate, there seemed to be a lot of frowns when they saw Naruto. Takeo, one of the councilmen of Kiri, stood with all his shinobi behind him. He was left in charge by the Mizukage herself before her departure, and to hear that there was an unexpected guest travelling with the Mizukage from the border security, it must be something suspicious. He had round up all the Jonin in the village to the gate to 'greet' their new guest. He had also dispatched all available Anbu to keep an eye on the unexpected traveller. "It's good to see you back in one piece, Mizukage-sama," Takeo greeted with a bow.

"It's also nice to see the village still in one piece, Takeo-san." Naruto snickered from her come-back, but it earned him a frown from every single of the shinobi present, except Mei, of course. "And I see that everyone here is fine as well."

"Yes, Mizukage-sama, we're all fine, but may I ask, who is this Konoha-nin?" From what his Anbu had reported, the unexpected nin was not to be meddled with. It seemed that he had a very unique type of chakra, and a lot of it too; it surpassed even the Kage's level. But he was shocked to see such a young person. He looked to be no more than a teen.

"Oh this little fella?" Mei asked with a big grin. She draped her arms over Naruto, causing everyone at the scene to gasped and also made Naruto blush. "He's my new personal bodyguard. I want you all to meet our new friend, Naruto Uzumaki."

What she just said didn't just cause everyone to gasped, again, it even caused some of the shinobi present to...faint. Naruto gulped in response. He knew that his name travelled around quite a bit, but he didn't that saving Konoha from Pein would have this big of an effect to his reputation. Really, he didn't expect that. "Do you mean, he's the Uzumaki, saviour of the Leaf?" Takeo asked, finding it quite hard to speak properly. Mei nodded in responses which cause more of her shinobi to falter. "What is he doing here? How did you even get him?"

"Well, I would like to discuss that, but do you really think that the village's entrance would be a good place to discuss these matters?" Mei asked with a tint of sarcasm in her voice. Naruto couldn't help but laugh at her comment; because really, talking about the village's affairs where everyone could hear? This Takeo guy must be a novice in the council. Though he didn't look like it; He looked to be about in his late forties, and his face showed experience. Naruto doubt that he was new at these matters. "Right, now that that's out of the way, I want to clean myself first, if you people don't mind."

She suddenly had an aura of authority as she walked through the crowd. Every immediately got out of the way, knowing that if they didn't, they might just have their body melt away. Naruto followed her in tow as they entered the village. He had never been here before, and marvelled at the architecture of the buildings. Instead of normal shaped buildings, most of its buildings were cylindrical in shape. As weird as it sounded, it looked good and fitted the terrain perfectly. Like Konoha, life here went on normally with civilian mixed with shinobi bustling around with their own business.

As the Mizukage walked past, everyone around them bowed in respect. It seemed like Mei was pretty respected here. Naruto didn't know much about the history of Kirigakure, but he remembered hearing about a civil-war here a couple years ago. But now, the place didn't even look like it had been touched by war. Mei must have done a good job on rebuilding this village. Naruto then started to feel a new level of respect from him; she deserved it.

"The weather here seems better than outside," Naruto said, his gaze wandering around. "I'm impressed, Mizukage-sama, you really did a number to this village, it's looking lively." Naruto was using his 'professional' tone that he had learnt from Kakashi. He actually noticed Kakashi talking formally when he needed to and talking in his own lazy way when he was with his friends; it gave him contrast.

Mei blushed in response, "Thank you, Naruto. It does look lively now, and everyone's hard-work paid-off, not only mine." Naruto chuckled at her modesty, one time she would be boasting about her skills, and other time would be the opposite; she really puzzled him. But nevertheless, Naruto did feel attracted to her, though who wouldn't? Look at her! She had a body of a goddess; it was slender and graceful. She had beautiful long slender legs, not to mention a nice ass, which he had touched. Her chest was...wow! It was probably not as big as Tsunade, but it wasn't small either, it was the perfect size!

The other thing that caught his eyes was her emerald green eyes. They were bright, and full of life. There were other things in her eyes that he couldn't read; seemed like she had a lot of secrets. Her hair was the other thing; her ankle-length auburn hair flowed smoothly down her body, it went with her perfectly. She had a mysterious look to her with her bangs covering part of her right eye.

Mei noticed that Naruto was 'checking' her out. She felt as if she should give him a little slap, but decided to let him have his fun. It's not like she was going to let him touch it, right? Her thoughts went back her own body. She felt sticky all over, and need a shower, badly! She also needed some shut-eye, travelling to and back from Konoha without a proper sleep had made her a bit tipsy, not that she was showing it, as every Kage should know, never show any weakness.

"Here we are!" Mei exclaimed. There was a big grin on her face as they stopped at the entrance. Naruto looked up at Mei's home and smiled. The estate wasn't like the other part of the village with the cylindrical designs – This one was like the Hyuuga's, nice and traditional. There were two guards at the gate; they bowed respectively to Mei, and happily opened the gate for her, but they hesitated a bit when they saw Naruto.

The front gate led to a small granite walkway which led to a medium sized courtyard. The court yard was beautifully decorated with various types of flowers and plants. There was also a small pond in the middle. "This is the main courtyard, and as you see, this place is divided into two," she said. "You can pick one of the rooms on the right side. My room would be on the left side. You would know which one since it has a pretty fancy door," Mei explained. She patted Naruto on the shoulder before walking to the left side of the house. "I'm going to take a shower, you should clean up too, then we could go and show you around, a bit. If you need anything, I'll just be a few steps away." Before Naruto could say a word, Mei had already disappeared into the rooms. He shook his head. Girls and their showers.

Though a shower was what he also needed, his body was sticky all over, and he knew that he smelled. And so, he checked the right side of the house. There were a couple of decent rooms, actually, there were heaps of them, but Naruto made a decision that he would sleep in a room that was the closest to the courtyard; it would be easier for him to get to the Mizukage if there was an emergency. The room he chose was 'average', not very big, considering that he didn't have much stuff; it would be the perfect size. There was a queen size bed in the middle of the room with wooden side-table on each side. The closet was of decent size, and could fit other things too.

Like the other rooms in this house, there was a bathroom connected to it. Naruto sighed as he took the sword's sling off his body; it's been hanging on his back for days, and it was starting to put a strain on his shoulders, because really, the sword was heavier than it looked. He then proceeded to undress, taking his coat off first, then his vest and arm-guards. Naruto felt uncomfortable as he took off his shirt, because he could sense a couple of Anbu watching him, he hoped that they won't spy on him in the toilet.

He decided that he would open his pants in the bathroom; it seemed safer to undress in there, because you never know, one of those Anbu might be a girl, or they might be a gay person. Naruto shuddered at the latter. He took the shower quickly, feeling uncomfortable with the presence of the Anbu. Lucky they were only watching the other room. Naruto wrapped a plain white towel that was left in the bathroom, around his waist after he dried himself up.

There was a basket set in the bathroom for dirty clothes, and so, he chucked his pants in there. Naruto then proceeded to his room and pick up his worn clothes to the basket, except his coat, it was still clean. He took out a scroll from one of his pouches and unrolled it, just as he was about to release the items in the scroll, namely his new clothes, the door was suddenly opened.

Mei Terumi's head popped in, oblivious to the fact that Naruto wasn't dressed yet. Her eyes widened in shock. She quickly shut the door and murmured a sorry. She couldn't hold off a blush as the image of Naruto's half naked body appeared in her mind. Naruto had such a nice body! Nice set of abs, perfectly chiselled chest, nice biceps, not to mention that he was still wet from his shower, it just made him sexier. "Are you dressed yet?" Mei asked, trying not to stutter.

Inside the room, Naruto frantically tried to put his clothes on. He should've been more aware of her presence. He cursed himself for that. His face was red hot from embarrassment, and he felt like slapping himself to death. He didn't like the idea of people seeing him naked, even if he was half naked, it was still very uncomfortable. "I'll be out in a sec, Mizu-sama," Naruto called out after he heard her ask.

He quickly put on his last piece of clothing on, and decided that he would leave his sword behind. He saw no reason for him to bring it, since they were safe in the village. "I'm done," Naruto announced as he opened the door. Mei was leaning against the wall in beside his door. Naruto could smell the scent of her hair as he walked out; it smelled like lavender mixed with the smell of the ocean. The shower did wonder for her; her face was now practically growing, not to mention that she looked more...alluring. Naruto felt sorry for himself for actually falling for her, because he knew that the two of them could never happen.

"Took you a while," Mei stated. She pushed herself off the wall and straightened the kinks out of her dress. "Now, we just have to explain all this to the council, then we have the rest of the day off," she beamed at the thought of sleeping for the whole day.

"Then we better get going, the faster we do this, the more time we have to doze off." Naruto said.

Mei nodded in agreement; the meaning was obvious in the sentence. But as Naruto headed up to the entrance, Mei suddenly grabbed him roughly at his collar and pulled him back into under her arms. "You said you wanted to get this over with, right?" Mei asked with smirk. Naruto just nodded dumbly, not seeing what she was getting to. "Because you know, there is such thing as a shunshin." And as Naruto's brain realized what she meant, the two disappeared in a swirl of water.

A second later, the two appeared directly in front of the Mizukage tower. It was cylindrical in shape, like the other buildings, but it was much taller and wider. "Now that was easy, wasn't it?" She poked Naruto in the nose before entering the building. It left Naruto dazed. Did she just treat him like a kid? "Bodyguards are supposed to stay with their client, you know," Naruto heard her called.

Naruto chuckled and shook his head; maybe this mission might be tough after all, seeing that the Mizukage was the obstacle.

Apparently, the Mizukage's office wasn't much of a difference compared to Konoha's. There was the usual full wall window that showed the entire village behind the Kage's desk, the usual book racks at the left side, and the 'comfort' section for special visitors on the right side. And _apparently_, the security in hear was pretty tight, Naruto could sense over fifty different chakra signatures. "Man, talk about a prison," Naruto muttered to himself. He could feel all the Anbu's hidden in the room stiffen.

Mei comfortably took a seat on the special 'Kage' chair. "Well, this is the Kage's office, what do you expect," she replied flatly. She was actually amazed at Naruto's sensing skill; it was beyond his age, and rank. All the Anbu in the room were her best, and they were the best in what they do – hiding. Even she has some trouble to detect them. "Cho!" she yelled. Immediately, a shinobi appeared in front of her.

Naruto examined the shinobi the Mizukage had called, and straight way, he knew that he was among the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of The Mist. It was pretty obvious from his gigantic sword that was slung over his back. He had turquoise blue hair, and soft looking face. Naruto could see that he had the same sharp teeth as Zabuza and Kisame. This person also wore black-rimmed glasses that seemed to be connected to headphones. His attire consisted of a blue long-sleeved striped shirt, and camouflage patterned pants. His forehead protector was embedded into what seemed like body armour that only covered his chest.

"Naruto, I want you to meet Chojuro, one of Kiri's finest shinobi," Mei announced with a slight pride in her voice. "Chojuro, this is Uzumaki Naruto. He'll be staying here in Kiri for a while."

"N-nice to meet you...Naruto-san," Chojuro greeted timidly. There was a blush evident on his cheeks as he brought his hand up for a shake. For some reason, this guy might be a perfect match for Hinata. They both have a similar personality.

Naruto grinned broadly, "Nice to meet you too, Chojuro!" Naruto gladly took his hand and shook it.

Mei could see the contrast between the two, Naruto, the confident one, while Chojuro might need to work on his ego. Maybe Naruto could teach a thing or two to Chojuro, to boost his confidence. "Well, now that that's over, Chojuro, can you please call Takeo-san here."

After Takeo arrived, Mei started explaining the current situation while Naruto jut lied back against the wall with his arms crossed. Naruto knew that it might take a while, but hey, who said diplomatic was easy. After a while, about ten minutes later, Mei had explained and discussed everything thoroughly with Takeo, and the old man seemed pleased with what he heard. "I see," the old man murmured, nodding his head a few times.

Takeo turned around to face Naruto, a smile on his face. "Welcome to Kirigakure, Uzumaki Naruto. I hope you take good care of our Mizukage, people like her only appear once in a generation." He patted Naruto on the shoulder before leaving the office.

"Well, now that this is over, you want ramen?" Mei asked with a grin. Although, she didn't even need to ask, the answer was painfully obvious from the expression Naruto was showing.

**xXx**

It had been two weeks since he had arrived here, in Kirigakure. He was assigned by the Hokage to protect the Mizukage with his life. The mission was going smoothly, nothing interesting happened. It seemed like Kiri or its Kage wasn't in any danger. Naruto wondered why Tsunade had sent him on this mission. Actually, he was puzzled. Why would Tsunade have sent him here to protect someone but that 'someone' wasn't even in any danger?

Though he was confused with the mission, he was apparently enjoying his stay here in Kirigakure. For the past two weeks that he was here, he was already friends with three-quarters of the Kiri shinobi corpse. His relationship with the village was average, nothing special there. But his relationship with Mei, the Mizukage, was steadily growing. Even though all he had done in this village was following her around, he kind of liked it. Not to mention that he had made a solid progress in his Hiraishin training.

Every morning, at about five o'clock, Naruto would wake up and train until the Mizukage was finally awake. Right now, Naruto had just finished his morning shower and was putting on his clothes. The sky was till dark and dawn was still an hour away. With his enhance hearing; he could hear the Mizukage's calm breathing. It somehow soothed his ear, it also calmed him down.

He picked up all his shinobi gear and proceeded to Mei's private training field. She had given him access to it, since she rarely used it, and because she would always spend three-quarters of her day in the office. Lately, she's been busy with the Elemental Nation alliance, and had little time for herself. Now, Naruto realized just how hard it was to be a Kage. To be a Kage was one thing, but to become a good one was another thing.

Like any elite ninja, Naruto sneaked out of the house without making a single noise. This was his normal morning routine; he would sneak out of the house, making sure not to wake the Mizukage, because god knew that she needed her sleep. His morning training consisted of three parts – One: Meditation, for his sage training. Two: Hiraishin training. Third: Standard physical and ninjutsu training, which just meant that he would create a bunch of clones and ask them to do a specific thing.

The meditation training was one of the most important things he had to improve in, because this would benefit his sage-mode, it would allow him to stay in sage-mode for a much longer time. He sighed as he sat into the meditation form. As expected, his heart rate started to lower down to a much more calm and soothing beat.

**xXx**

Mei Terumi noticed that she was alone in the house. Her eyes snapped open immediately as she felt Naruto's presence disappear from the house. It was expected. She had known about his 'early morning training' for a couple of days now. It was a couple of days ago when she found out about his training in the morning. Though it was an accident that she found out, she was mysteriously awoke by something. And from that day, she would wake up at the exact time as Naruto when he left the house. At first, she thought he was just having a morning stroll, but as she started to follow him around, she found out that he was training

She had to admit it though, watching him train was pretty interesting, especially when he started to train shirtless. Mei giggled at the thought, Naruto had only been here for two weeks, but she was already starting to 'dream' about him. He had been very mature the past weeks, and it made him more desirable. She couldn't contain her excitement as started to get dress. It was time to spy on her little bodyguard.

As soon as she was dressed, she shunshin herself to a specific spot at her private training field. Mei could already see Naruto at his usual spot. She watched him with dreamy eyes as he continued to concentrate in his meditation. She continued to watch until she felt another person watching him. She recognised the familiar chakra, but what was he doing here? Mei immediately disappeared from her spot, but only to reappear on another tree brunch. "What are you doing here, Chojuro?" Mei asked in a hushed tone, catching Chojuro totally by surprised. He then lost his balance which resulted in him falling down from the tree. But before he could make a single noise, Mei had managed to get a hold on Chojuro's collar.

She easily pulled him up, considering that he wasn't wielding his gigantic sword at the moment. "Mizukage-sama?" he said with a tone of pure surprise. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"That's what I asked you! Now answer me!" she commanded.

Chojuro sighed, "I just wanted to see how Naruto-san trains; I wanted to know how he got to become so confident in himself," he admitted. His eyes were cast down and he was fidgeting with his fingers. He then looked up to her, "But what are you doing here?"

Mei looked away, blushing. "I just felt that I should check on my bodyguard," she said with a pout. "What? Is it wrong to do so?"

"No, no!" he blurted, afraid that she might 'kill' him. The two then continued to watch Naruto in silence. The sun was just about up, as the top bit of the sun was just barely visible. The sky was a mix of orange and purple, but also a tinge of pink was visible.

"What are you doing up there, Mizukage-sama?" A sudden voice asked. Mei coughed on her own breath as she heard the voice. The voice caught her by surprised that it even caused her to lose her balance on the tree branch. Though before she could feel the impact, a pair of strong arms grabbed hold of her around the waist.

Naruto easily hauled her up to him. Her face was a bit dazed from his sudden appearance. "You alright there, Mei-chan?" Mei noticed that his blue eyes looked amazing if contrasted to the early morning sky. But she was brought out of her trance as fast as got in; the sudden 'Mei-_chan_' startled her.

Chojuro coughed as he heard what Naruto had called her. No one had called her that, and they knew better than to do it. This Naruto person that he barely knew was a gutsy person. He reckoned that Naruto was probably the only person in the whole world that would be dumb enough to stand against the Mizukage. He didn't know what to do, and he didn't want to be caught into the fight, and so, he slightly inched away from the two, gradually increasing the distance between them.

"Mei-chan, now?"

Naruto had to slap himself for that. He was used to calling girls close to him that, that he didn't even realized that he had said it. "Oh, I'm sorry about that, Mei-_sama_. I didn't mean to scare you."

"No, no. I don't mind you calling me that, Naruto-_kun_. And please, you didn't scare me; you just took me by surprise."

Naruto moved back and laughed. "Whatever you say, Mei-_chan_," He said with an all knowing grin. "I'll just leave you to your business." Naruto jumped off the branch and landed safely on the ground before walking back to his original spot.

"Hey Naruto-kun, wait a sec!" Mei called out. She jumped off after him and ran to his side. "Why were you hiding your training from me?" she asked.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "I wasn't hiding my training from you."

"Then why were you sneaking out to train, hmm?" she pushed. "Surely you're hiding something?"

Naruto laughed, "Mei-chan, I wasn't hiding anything, I just didn't want to wake you up. That's all. Because god knows that you need all the sleep you can get," he stated.

Was that why? Naruto seemed more caring than she had ever thought. "Oh. I appreciate that."

"Yeah well, you better get ready for work, who knows what the council's gonna say to you if you come in late," Naruto warned. Just like any council, they were all known to be pushy and sometimes, annoying.

"I have a day off today, actually," she said as a matter-of-fact. "And I think I need a little exercise. Sitting in that damn office for hours made my body a bit tight. Maybe you could help me by being my sparring partner."

Naruto coughed out, hard. "Me? Your sparring partner? Are you serious?"

"Why? What's so wrong about it?"

Naruto started to sweat. He had heard about what the Mizukage could do from the other Kiri-nin, and all of what he heard, he didn't want to experience himself. "I mean like, why me? Cos' you know, you could always pick someone else."

"Oh, well you know..." she put on a sly smile. "You are my bodyguard after all, I just wanted to see how skilful you are, considering all the stories I heard about you. I wanna see them for myself," she explained with that same sly smile of hers. "Unless you scared, of course." Mei knew that Naruto was nothing other than strong, and she wanted to see what he could do, but she was also serious about this being a good exercise for her body.

**xXx**

_Konohagakure, a day after Naruto's departure..._

Tsunade sighed to herself. The Akatsuki were being a bit too quiet for her liking, why weren't they doing anything? Anyhow, she hoped that hiding Naruto in Kirigakure was a good idea, because she felt like something 'big' was about to happen. The feeling was lingering in her stomach for a while, and it was bothering her...

**xXx**

**END CHAPTER 2**

**So how was it? I reckoned that this chapter didn't have much in it, since this chapter was supposed to be like a bridge that would lead to the next chapter. Anyhow, I think I've made my mind on the plot of this story, and as you have read in the last part of this chapter, there's something boiling up. **

**NEXT CHAPTER: Naruto vs. Mizukage, the unfinished fight!**

**PS: Take note that I'm starting this story with a light start, so everything would build up in time.**

**Review people :) It would be much appreciated.**

**PEACE!**

**-FOXSAGE-**


	3. Naruto vs Mizukage,the unfinished battle

**Mizukage's Bodyguard**

**Chapter 3: Naruto vs. Mizukage, the unfinished battle!**

**AN:** So, how's it going people? Good? That's great :) But anyway, this chapter is just to learn what our two favourite heroes can do in battle, and I mean the basics; no flashy techniques or any super jutsus, just a normal spar, though this is where Naruto shows of his Hiraishin training ;) if you know what I mean. AND all the fluff starts here! So see ya at the end. PEACE!

**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own Naruto: P

**xXx**

"Come on, Naruto. Fight me!" Mei challenged. After five minutes of trying to convince him, it wasn't going too well. Naruto was being stubborn about this, and it annoyed her. "Unless, you're pussying out?"

"I am not! I just don't want to, you know, _hurt_ you," But actually, he was being a pussy. He did not want to get his balls melted!

"Pfft, please, you won't even touch me," She was just taunting him now, trying to get him a bit fired up, and hope that it would resulted in him fighting her. Why was he scared of her, anyway? It wasn't like she was going to melt or _boil_ his balls off, right?

"AHA! You got your answer there, so what's the point of fighting, huh?" Naruto could feel his heartbeat fastened. "Uh...yeah, I got to go now, anyway!" He took the chance to bolt into the distance, but sighed and cursed when he felt someone took hold of his collar.

"So are you going to fight me, or not?" Her tone was absolute, and Naruto knew that there was no way to escape it. She loosened her grip on his collar, freeing him from her grasp.

Naruto sighed again; there was no way to do this than to fight her. "Fine," he breathed, defeated. "I guess there's no other way to do this." He groggily stood up and faced her, a smirk appearing on his face. "But I warned you, you won't like the outcome of this." He tightened his Konoha forehead protector, and took a simple fighting stance. _I guess I can try out my new technique, now._

Mei also took her own fighting stance. "Yeah, you are right. I wouldn't like the outcome too, knowing that my bodyguard is weaker than me," she said, also holding her own smirk. "Let's see how you hold up with this!" she made a quick succession of hand-seals, faster than the eye could see. "**Fire-release: Grand-fireball jutsu!**" Immediately, she made a finger ring around her mouth and blew out probably one of the largest fireball that Naruto had ever seen.

But as big as the fireball was, it wasn't impossible to dodge. He rolled off to his right, completely dodging the big ball. He was about to counter the attack by attacking back, but it seemed that Mei was already making more hand-seals for another jutsu. "**Earth-release: Thorns of the Underworld!**" She slammed her palm into the ground. For a second, nothing happened, but a second later, the ground started to shake.

Naruto could feel what was coming, and he knew it would hurt if he didn't move NOW! Stone spikes started erupting from the ground, and he could feel it coming from under him. Immediately, he took off into the air, as high as he could. He managed to avoid the pointy rocks by not even an inch.

Still in mid-air, Naruto made a standard one-hand rasengan. He had to use this rasengan to destroy those rocks as he landed, or his ass would've been penetrated by one of those spikes. "You're doing pretty well, Naruto. But do you know what happens when rocks melt?" Naruto inwardly gulped, here comes the lava. After another quick succession of hand-seals, she stopped at and held the tiger seal. Her eyes were tight with concentration, as she yelled out, "**Lava-release! Magma-pool!**"

The rocks that were still surrounding him started to...melt? It was melting right in front of his eyes, they were glowing red hot and were slowly turning into liquid. Naruto could also feel the Earth under his feet starting to get hot! Was Mei heating the ground? He couldn't do much other than jump into the trees. It seemed that Mei was only heating at one spot.

Mei hadn't moved an inch from her spot and from that, Naruto knew that she was a long-distance fighter. And from what Naruto could tell, a small area of grass was left around her. From experience, Naruto knew that all long-distance shinobi liked to attack from a distance, and it looked like Mei was trying to keep him away by covering the area around her with lava. He could just jump in at her an attack head on, but that wouldn't work – she would just shoot rocks or lava at him before he could even reach her. He could try and cool the lava down, but he wasn't a water user. Would his wind chakra work? The wind could cool the lava down.

Mei was currently enjoying the moment. She had covered the area around her with lava, and there was no way Naruto could get across. She knew that he was hiding in a tree somewhere, and he had hidden his chakra completely. From what she could tell, she was in the winning side.

A wind jutsu. That was all Naruto needed to do, but he didn't which. Rasen-shuriken would just destroy the whole field, and there was a slight chance that it could hit Mei. And by far, he didn't have any other wind affinity jutsu in his arsenal. Well, actually, he did, but it was no use in this situation. But then, a thought came to his head. A grin came to his face; it was time to see what his training had done to him.

**xXx**

Chojuro had watched the two shinobi argued, and now, he was intrigued at the battle the two were having. And from the explosion Naruto had created from his swirling blue ball, it had attracted quite a lot of attention. Beside him were a couple of other Kiri-shinobis that had heard the blast, and it seemed others were coming.

He had a feeling that this fight was going to take a while.

**xXx**

It'd been a couple of minutes now and Naruto had not come out of hiding. Mei suspected that Naruto was attempting something, but what was it? Or did he take the chance to run away? But she was answered when she heard a kunai slicing through the air, heading straight to her. But she didn't even have to move an inch to dodge it; it just barely missed her head. "You have to work on your aiming, Naruto-kun!" A second later, a second Kunai came down, followed by a whole barrage of it. Mei evaded all of them easily. What was with all the kunai attacks? He couldn't have beaten Pein if he was like this. Was he holding back against her? Because she knew that he was better than this. "Come on Naruto-kun! You're boring me!" Suddenly, Naruto flashed in front of her, landing a full fist blow on her stomach. But he suddenly disappeared as fast as he appeared. The blow left her winded for a second. How was Naruto to be able to appear that fast, but disappeared with the same speed a second later?

Naruto was breathing heavily as he reappeared back at his hiding spot. The jutsu itself didn't need to use much chakra, but he still wasn't used to using the jutsu; he still got dizzy after using it. But right now, he was able to 'flash' in front or anywhere near the Mizukage easily. He had actually marked all his kunai with the special Hiraishin seal. And so, the Kunai he had thrown before was his key to winning. Time to get back into the fight.

The lava around her had slightly cooled off, but she didn't care anymore. Naruto had somehow found a way to attack her directly, and that made her a bit more cautious of her surroundings. She was suddenly kicked at her sides, but before she could get him back, he was already gone. This went on for quite a while. She was hit from all sides in speeds that she deemed to be impossible.

Mei tried to figure his pattern, if there was one, but it was all completely random. She knew that Naruto was holding back his attacks, because the amount of power he put in his attacks were that of child. If he was an enemy, and she was stuck in the same situation, she would already be dead.

Suddenly, Naruto's attack stopped, giving Mei time to finally react. She formed multiple hand-seals at speeds that only came from years of practice. It was time to reveal where that blond fox was. She was tired of this! "**Earth-release: Ground breaker!**" She slammed her palm into the ground causing massive shockwaves that sent Naruto out of his tree; he made an 'oof' sound as he landed roughly on the ground.

Mei found what she wanted and went straight for the kill. "Found you, Naruto-kun! **Water-release: Water Dragon Missile!**" She blasted out a massive amount of water to Naruto. The water split into two and shifted their shapes into dragons. Both of them hit Naruto, pushing him back into a tree. Another 'oof' came out of him as he was slammed into the tree. She then proceeded into her next attack. "**Earth-release: Devouring Earth!" **The Earth under Naruto started to spiral inwards, bringing Naruto's still slumped body in it. But before Naruto's head was sucked into the ground, the spiral stopped and the ground soften into mud, before hardening itself. Three quarters of Naruto's body was under the ground.

She smirked at her handiwork. Seemed like she got him in a pretty 'tight' situation. Mei walked over to Naruto's head with a laugh. "I guess the match's over, Naruto-kun." She kneeled in front of him and poked his nose playfully. She was expecting him to look up at her with a pout or a frown, but she did not expect him to be grinning. The head suddenly exploded into a smoke screen, and managed to catch her by surprise.

She immediately got into her fighting stance as she felt Naruto charging at her from behind. Actually, make that two Narutos. The two proceeded into attacking her, one attempted to sweep kick her legs, while the other one was going for a straight punch to her face. She avoided the attacks by jumping up, avoiding the kick, and also managed at the same time to catch the fist of the other one. She used this to her advantage and kicked one of them out of existence. Suddenly, more and more Narutos came into the fight. The more of them she killed, the more came. It was never ending.

It seemed like sending a mass of shadow-clones in, ti attack wasn't a very good idea. The more he sent it, the more of them die. He found that this tactic was a chakra waster. Maybe it was time to end this fight with a good old, traditional, tai-jutsu. Naruto stopped producing clones, and waited decided that it was time to join in the fight. "You sure are using a lot of chakra for this, Naruto-kun. I think this battle is dragging a bit. I think it's time we end this! **Fire-release: Impact!" **Both of her palms glowed red before it started to catch on fire. She then slammed her flaming palms onto the ground, creating a fire burst that exploded outwards, totally destroying all of Naruto's clones.

She smirked at the result. "What are you going to do next, Naruto-kun?"

"This!" Naruto threw a kunai at her which was easily deflected with her own. He then jumped straight at her with a kunai in his hands, ready to slice her head off.

Mei saw his head-in attack and knew that this was her chance, creating the hand-seals needed; she unleashed a powerful gush of water out of her mouth, to Naruto.

Now, the only thing in Naruto's way was the water attack, but luckily, he already planned for this. A split second before the water could touch him; Naruto disappeared in a flash of yellow, but appeared behind Mei a second later, at where the Kunai he had thrown before. He sweep kicked her legs. It took her completely by surprise, and threw her out of balance. She then proceeded to fall backwards, but before the fall was completed, Naruto had caught her in his arms. "So, is that enough for today?" Naruto's chest was heaving up and down, and his face was full of sweat.

Mei was still surprised from his sneaky trick. She didn't even see him move; unless, the one jumping towards her was a shadow clone, and the real one was hiding somewhere behind her. Now that the sun was up, Mei couldn't help but blush when she saw Naruto's face 'shining' in front of the sun. He looked...amazing. "I guess this will be enough for today, Naruto-kun." She sighed, before getting up.

The two were then startled when they heard people clapping. All around them were Kiri ninjas with smiles and grins on their faces. Some of them yelled out 'nice job' or 'that was badass!'. Naruto grinned and waved back at them, while the Mizukage just smiled.

After all the commotion, the two were on their way back to the house. They didn't speak to each other, instead, they were both trying to avoid looking at each other. Mei was feeling rather uncomfortable, for some reason. Her face was still red-hot even though her body had already cooled down, and her heartbeat was rather 'active', more so than usual. While Naruto, also feeling uncomfortable, felt as though something was boiling in his stomach.

**xXx**

Another week went pass without a hitch. Though for Naruto and Mei, it was probably the hardest week of their lives. They hadn't spoken to each other as much as they used to, as the two tend to try and avoid a conversation to each other. The truth was, Mei was having trouble with her feelings for him; it started out small, but then it grew, and grew until it became something that she dared to speak of. She didn't know how to approach the subject as she knew that her feelings for him were just wrong. She was nine years older than him for god's sake, but that certain feeling was slowly overpowering her judgements.

Mei, now clothed in her see-through nightgown, was in bed, reading a particular book. She should be sleeping right now, as it was past midnight, but her eyes were being stubborn. Her mind though, was very exhausted; things were getting very 'complicated' with the war that was going on – Akatsuki hadn't attack or made a single move after Madara's declaration of war. The Raikage had made Kumogakure the Main ops base, and it would be where all the villages' army would assemble, including Kiri's.

A meeting was also called on there, it would be held in a week's time. She predicted that it would probably be about the Jinchuurikis. Of course, they were the Akatsuki's current goal, and it was the Elemental Alliance's top priority to protect them. Her thoughts then drifted to Naruto. The interaction between them was suddenly dimming. She didn't know why, but since after the fight, Naruto seemed to be less talkative – not to mention that he was a bit paler than usual. Maybe he was sick?

She had to put that thought away when she heard some unexpected noise. She could hear ragged breathing, like somebody was having a heart attack. Maybe it was Naruto? Maybe he was really sick? Mei immediately jumped out of her bed, and ran straight to Naruto's room. She didn't care that she was practically (almost) naked.

She busted down Naruto's door and leaped to his side and took in the situation. Naruto was drenched in sweat; his sheets were almost completely soaked from them. His body was tensed, every muscle in his body was clenching, and he was thrashing around wildly on his bed with his teeth gritted tightly. His face showed an expression of pain, and also... sadness; from all the sweat on his face, Mei was surprised that she could tell the difference from the sweat and tears. "Naruto?" She said in a soft, gentle, soothing tone.

But her voice didn't get through to him. Mei then decided that she should put a bit more... force. She roughly scooped his head up and brought it to her chest. She hugged it and gently rubbed his hair and cheek while whispering soothing words into his ear. Soon enough, the blond's breathing became calmer and even, while his face softened up.

A small smile of relief appeared on Mei's face. She let out a gentle sigh as she saw his calm sleeping face. A small smile also appeared on his face as he buried his face deeper into her chest, "Mei-chan..." Naruto suddenly murmured.

She blushed as his sudden movement, but nonetheless, the smile stayed up as she continued to gently caress his hair and cheeks.

**xXx**

**AN: Pretty short? Yeah I know, this is pretty short. But I'm sorry, this is all I could squeeze out of my tight schedule. Unfortunately, I have exams for three weeks straight, and for someone of my age, exams are **_**really**_** important, and I have to pass all of them at all cost. But nonetheless, sorry for the late update, as I explained above, I was terribly busy, and expect the next chapter in two weeks (I usually update once a week, but as stated above, I have to study :P). And maybe, I'll put on two chapters for the next update, since luckily, next week is the last week of the exams (thank god *sigh*).**

**Anyway, thanks for reading, and don't forget to review :)**

**PEACE!**

**-FOXSAGE-**


	4. A new identity,A new look,A new problem

**Mizukage's Bodyguard**

**Chapter 4: A new Identity, A new look, A new problem**

**AN:** Wow, I can't believe this, but I updated a week earlier than I was expected to – Two thumbs up for me:P Anyway... I wrote this chapter up straight after my last exam, which was somehow, English :( But I think I did well anyhow.

But enough of this chit-chat, time for the story!

ENJOY ^,^

**xXx**

As soon as his eyes were opened, the sting of the fresh morning light immediately attacked him, forcing his eyes to be closed the second it was opened. Naruto groaned in annoyance, since when did the sun get so bright this early in the morning? But before his brain could process the answer, his nose suddenly sniffed up the smell of food – was that the smell of breakfast? Since when did people cook breakfast this early in the morning? And there was the same question, again. Somehow, his brain felt a bit foggy this morning; it was hard for him to think straight.

But then, realization dawned him, and his hand, out of pure reaction, slapped him across the face. The morning wasn't as early as Naruto had expected; it was actually way passed his usual waking-up time. Naruto cracked his eyes open, slowly letting in light, bit by bit, letting his eyes adapt to the current light level. As his eyesight was clear, he looked out of his opened window, and judging by the sun's position, he was about five hours late from his original waking-up time, which was usually at five am in the morning.

"Uhh...god," he muttered, frustrated with himself. "I can't believe myself!" Though Really, he couldn't blame himself for this, the sleep he just had was bliss. Naruto didn't know why, but it was probably the best sleep he ever had in his entire life. A small smile the appeared across his face, but it faltered when a flashback of a certain dream re-played in his mind. The dream came out of nowhere. He hadn't had a dream like that for a long time, but this was worse. Though the nightmare was different – instead of the continuous and endless nightmare, the dream gradually became less and less dark, until he started having these dreams about a certain person.

"Man, she's really getting to me." He muttered to himself with a sigh. For a while, the blond laid on his bed with both hands crossed behind his head, while his eyes stared at the blank white ceiling above. His blue eyes, slightly shining from the sun's rays that had managed to seep through the curtain, blinked. A second after that, he jumped out of his bed in a sudden hurry. What was he doing lying on his bed while he had a mission to continue with?

Since the attack from Pein, Naruto hadn't wore his old pyjamas while he slept, one reason was that he couldn't, since it was turned to ash with his other clothes, but also because he thought that it time for him to move out of them. So now, Naruto only wore boxers to sleep, nothing else.

He rushed into the bathroom, washing his face roughly before heading straight into the shower with a tooth brush in his mouth. In the shower, he quickly washed his hair, face, and then body, all done while brushing his teeth. Minutes later, he was out of the bathroom and half dressed. He couldn't find his damn tank top. Where was his damn top! Actually, where were ALL his tank tops? He groaned in annoyance as he searched through his room. The search continued for another five minute before he dropped down on his bed. He gave up, even though his nindo was not to give up, this was an exception – the shirt was nowhere to be found. Then, there was knock on his door.

Naruto bolted up straight away as he heard the sound. It was Mei, and he knew it. "Um...who is it?" Naruto asked. He felt like slapping himself for asking such an obvious question, but let it slide.

"It's Mei, Naruto," There came the sweet voice of the one and only Mei Terumi, the Godaime Mizukage of Kirigakure. "Can I come in?" she continued.

Naruto gulped at the question. "Uh...okay?" He said, unsure of what to say.

The door opened, revealing the Mizukage in her usual blue dress with a mesh shirt under it. But the thing that caught Naruto's blue orbs was the materials in her hand. "Here are your shirts, I washed them up this morning; they were getting pretty smelly." She gently set the folded clothes on his bed before walking out of his room, but stopped right at end. "Get dress quickly, breakfast is waiting for you," she said with a little grin.

A blush appeared on his cheeks as she watched her walked away. The smile that faltered before finally strengthened back to its original power, and it turned into the big smile he was known to have. "Thanks Mei-chan!" he called out with his hyperactive cheerful voice. Naruto then proceeded with getting dress.

**xXx**

A big smile was plastered across her face as she heard Naruto's yell. It warmed her heart to hear him say those words. She walked through the corridor leading to the kitchen with a satisfied smile. The kitchen was practically glowing from the all the light coming in. The kitchen was a typical square shaped room with a wide glass door that led to the backyard. Mei then proceeded to walk to the island in the middle of the room. It was a basic rectangular shape with a light brown marble top.

On top, she had set multiple foods that she knew Naruto would love, other than ramen, of course. She continued to set out the required table cutleries while her mind was thinking of how refreshing it was to sleep with Naruto. Yes, she slept in Naruto's bed last night, and she loved the feeling of it. Really, she didn't expect she was going to fall asleep in his bed, let alone with Naruto in her arms. But it was lucky she had managed to wake up before him, it would've been a massive shocker for the teenage blond to suddenly see the Mizukage sleeping beside him and on his bed.

It was now about twenty past ten, and she was at least three hours late for work, but being the Mizukage has its advantages – this morning, before she had made breakfast, Mei had went out to get some new groceries since the stock for last month ran out, and luckily, she had bumped into Takeo, the one person she trusted the most with the village's safety. And she had managed to persuade him to cover for her this morning.

Mei smiled to herself as she examined her finished work; everything was set, the only thing missing is Naruto – she just had to wait for him to come out. She pulled out a stool from under the top and let her bottom rest on it. She brought her elbows up onto the marble top and let her face rest on her palms. She let out a sigh as she waited for the young blond to come out.

After a minute or two of waiting, the one person she was waiting for finally showed his face into the kitchen, on it was the usual shining blue eyes that complemented his bright, wild, blond hair. He was expressing a soft smile that seemed to make her heart glow just by looking at it. "Took you awhile to get here, Naruto," she said jokingly.

Naruto chuckled at her remark, "I'm sorry, Mizukage-sama. Please don't surround me with all your Anbu."

Mei laughed at his come-back, "I just might if you don't sit down now." She patted the stool beside her.

Naruto brought o hands up in mock defence, "As you wish, Mizukage-sama." He made a slight mock bow making Mei laugh even more. The blond took the seat beside her as she had 'ordered'. "Now what do you wish for me to do, Mizukage-sama?" He asked, continuing with the joke.

"Arghh, Naruto! Drop it, or I'll drop you!" She said, smacking his arm.

Naruto then laughed, "Okay! Okay! Sheeshhh, you started the joke, I just continued with it," he stated.

"Just eat! Took me all morning to cook al this food, I expect to see all the plates empty!" She demanded with a fiery glare.

His amused face was gone, replaced with a less confident face. He gulped in fear, "Um... yes mam!" But before Naruto could dig in into his food, a knock came from the front door. A serious face came, replacing his old expression, but was immediately changed back to his casual expression when he sensed who it was. "It's Chojuro," Naruto answered. "And the other three from his squad," he added.

Mei scrunched her face in confusion, "Team Mist? What are they doing here?" She stood up from her stool and straightened out the kinks out of her blue dress. "Probably something important," she muttered as she made her way to the front door. Naruto, also standing up, followed her.

As expected, at the other side of the door was Chojuro in his standard Anbu uniform and three others from his Anbu team – Their names were Kamui, Fumio, and Haruka if Naruto remembered properly. "What seems to be the problem, Chojuro?" Mei asked.

"We need you at the tower right away, Mizukage-sama. A message had just arrived a couple minutes ago from Kumo, and only you can open it," Chojuro explained with a trained Anbu expressionless voice.

Mei sighed in disappointment, seemed like having breakfast with Naruto would have to be cancelled. "I'll be there in a sec," She mumbled before walking back inside.

Inside, Naruto was leaning against a wall beside the front door, "So? What is it about?" he asked.

"A message came a couple minutes ago from Kumo," she explained with a sigh. "I think Akatsuki finally came out to play." That seemed to have caught the blond's attention.

**xXx**

"So what's the problem?" Mei asked. She was seated on her comfy leather chair behind her desk. Her office was filled with members from Kirigakure's council and her most trusted Anbu. Naruto was leaning against the window behind her with his arms crossed. He had a distant expression on his face as he was stuck in his own thoughts.

Takeo spoke up first, "That," he said dryly while his right hand pointed at a certain scroll with Kumo's seal stamped on it. "And only you can open it. They had put a seal on it that would only be unlocked by a Kage's chakra."

Mei took the scroll and examined it closely. It was just a plain scroll with the Kumo kanji on it, nothing special. She channelled some of her chakra into it and as stated by Takeo, the scroll unrolled, revealing all its contents. She read over the whole thing not once but three times to fully understand it. Mei re-rolled the scroll and looked up at all the council members in front of her with a sigh. "It seems like there will be another Kage meeting in a few days. Iwa spies had confirmed that Akatsuki is on the move again."

Takeo sighed, "Looks like the war is inevitable."

"Those Akatsuki are a real trouble maker," Continued Hatomi, another council member. She was a middle aged woman, in her forties to be exact. She had the posture of a royal person, and an aura of arrogance. Mei never liked her much, but the middle-aged woman had never 'disturbed' or done anything that would affect her or the village in any bad way, so she didn't really have a problem against her.

"Well, I guess this little meeting is over," Said Isato in his usual calm voice. He was her adviser, other than Takeo. He was known to be the 'calm' and 'collected' one in the council, and was the Lead jonin commander of Kiri's shinobi corps. "I'll see you in a week, Mizukage-sama." Isato was the first to leave, followed by Hatomi, then the other council members –except Takeo. He stood there with a frown on his face.

"What's wrong?" Mei asked with concern in her voice.

Takeo let out a sigh in defeat, "Nothing, just going to say good-luck," A small smiled then appeared on his face. "See you two later."

After Takeo had left, Mei slammed her head onto her desk, and groaned in annoyance. "I hate those Akatsukis'," She muttered.

"You could say that for me too. Actually, no one liked'em much," Naruto said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Guess we have to start packing."

Mei then stood up from her leather chair, "Actually, I forgot to give you something," She popped open one of the drawers under her desk and pulled out a scroll. Straight away, Naruto recognised the Konoha seal stamped on it. "Tsunade had given me this when we left Konoha a couple of weeks ago. She said that you should start wearing this for this mission."

She tossed the scroll to Naruto who caught it with ease. He marvelled at the scroll in his hands with great interest. "What is it?"

"I have not even the slightest clue to what was stored inside it, Naruto," she admitted with a frown. "Open it up and see what it is."

Slowly, he unrolled the scroll and carefully read every word with maximum concentration. It said...

_Dear Naruto,_

_Here's a little present Kakashi and I made for you. It's a little something that could someday protect you, and, Kakashi made sure that it would fit you to the bone ^.^ _

_Make sure you wear it everyday._

_PS: Kakashi said that it would also give you good luck._

_From Tsunade, _

_Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure._

Naruto laughed at the end note. His sensei could make him laugh even from a little message. His eyes then continued t travel downwards – there was a seal implanted below the message; it probably contained the 'thing' that Tsunade and Kakashi had made for him. "I wonder what could be inside?" Naruto mumbled. He laid the unrolled scroll on the ground before channelling a tiny bit of chakra into his index finger. Gently, Naruto tapped his finger onto the seal, sending his chakra into it.

A second later, a small puff of smoke exploded from the scroll. As the smoke cleared, Naruto almost choked on his own breath as he saw what was stored inside. "A mask?" It was. It was a black face mask like Kakashi's. The mask was connected to a black tank top that was made out of a special silky material. There were three in total that were stored in the scroll. "Wow, guess I have to look like Kakashi everyday now, " Naruto said with a laugh.

Mei walked over to his side an let out an amused face. "They want you to look like ?"

"I think so?"

"Well, this does add up to what Tsunade-sama had said," Mei said with a thoughtful expression. "She wanted to keep the alliance a secret, probably doesn't want anyone to know that you're here."

"I guess I can see the reason behind that." Naruto mumbled back.

"Well," She started, patting Naruto's blond hair lightly. "Time to get packing."

**xXx**

It had been two days since they had left the village, and it had been five hours since they had landed on the mainland. Now, they were walking along the dusty with what was left of the sun shining on them. Dusk was coming and both knew that they needed to find a good place to camp or at least an inn, fast. But it seemed that the next town was not for another thirty kilometres or so.

Naruto, now wearing his black face mask that Tsunade and Kakashi had given him was enjoying the feel of the light evening breeze brushing against him face. It puzzled Naruto at how his mask worked; it was somehow easy to breathe through it, and it was surprisingly easy to talk with it on his face –nevertheless, the mask wasn't annoying or irritating in any way. Maybe he could get use to wearing the mask everyday, now. Though another aspect of him was also different – instead of his usual Konoha headband, he was now wearing a Kiri headband; it wasn't because he changed villages, it was because he had to keep his identity a secret. And that was the purpose at why Tsunade had given him the face mask.

"I can hear a river close to hear," Mei suddenly said. She was walking right beside him with her 'Kage' posture and calm expression. She only wore that look when she was going to be or already in an important meeting. It showed that she was in her 'Kage-mode', which meant that she was deadly serious, and anyone that stood in her way while she was in the 'mode' would probably turn into fried human in seconds.

"Huh?" Really, Naruto wasn't concentrating on the journey at all; he was somehow feeling a bit laid-back, especially with the evening breeze caressing his face, it was a surprise that he was still walking straight.

Mei shook her head and sighed in disappointment, "You should really pay attention on the journey, Naruto," Mei advised, her voice a bit softer than before. "I said, there is a river close to here. Maybe we can find a clearing beside it to camp for the night."

"I guess we could," Naruto replied with a sheepish grin.

Even with his mask on, Mei could tell that he was grinning, and she laughed at his antics. "Really Naruto, take this seriously. What happened to the quiet and aware Naruto who had escorted me to Kiri safely?"

Naruto shrugged with an expression of pure cluelessness, "Who knows?"

"You're really turning into you sensei, Naruto," Mei stated with a sigh. "Who knows, maybe one day you'll even start to read those books in public."

Naruto burst out laughing from her comment. "Mei-chan, trust me, I'm way too different to be like my sensei."

Mei snorted, "Pfft, I sure hope so. Because no lazy ass would be fit enough to be my bodyguard."

"Ahha! I found the river," Naruto suddenly yelled. "And there's a little clearing beside it too!" He said with pure glee as he pointed at the river Mei was talking about.

Just as the sun fully went down, the camp was set and a fire was up, providing the light and heat for the two shinobi needed to get comfortable for the dark and cold night ahead. Naruto, now sitting on the ground with one knee up in front of the fire, was watching intently at the water pot heating over the fire. Mei watched the blond in amusement from her sleeping space; it seemed that the young blond wanted his hot cup of ramen as soon as the water started to boil, and by that, she meant the first one tenth of a second after the water started to boil, judging by how the blond was concentrating on the metal pot.

"You know Naruto, the ramen and the water won't run away," Mei said with an amused tone.

"Meh..." Was Naruto's only answer.

Now the Mizukage was irritated; she never liked being ignored, especially over a damn irrelevant pot! "Naruto!"

Immediately as the sound of his name entered in his ears, Naruto jumped up from his sitting position and disappeared then reappeared at the side of the person he was assigned to protect. His kunai was drawn and he was in a stance that showed he was ready to fight. "What is it? What's wrong?" He asked, confused at the lack of 'bad guys' around.

Mei stared at the blond who stood in front of her in his defensive stance with pure surprised, "It took a yell from me to catch you attention? Wow..." she mumbled, still in a state of surprised.

Naruto was completely lost at what was happening, "Huh?"

Mei shook her head low, "Don't worry, Naruto. I think i'll be skipping dinner," she said in the same mumble voice. She then proceeded to her sleeping tent with no words spoken, leaving a confused Naruto behind.

He watched her leave, confusion still obvious on his face. He had no idea at what he did wrong, and he knew he didn't do anything wrong. Did he? _'Did I?'_ he asked himself. His hunger of his precious ramen disappeared and was replaced by a sense of concern. Slowly, he stood up to his full height and straightened out his clothes. A soft expression replaced his confusion, as he had a slight clue to what was wrong.

Mei lied inside her sleeping bad under the shelter of her tent with her eyes closed. She wasn't sleeping, but that did not mean that she didn't want to. She was tired, exhausted, and full on pissed – Tired and exhausted from the day's journey, and pissed at Naruto's ignorance. She wasn't going to make a big deal out of a small like this, but she couldn't help but feel hurt from his lack of interest in her.

"Mei-chan..." Came the voice of the one and only Naruto. "Can I come in?"

Mei popped her head out of her sleeping bag with a raised eye-brow. "What?"

"I said – can I come in?" Naruto repeated in a much softer and gentler.

Mei sighed, "You know, it's going t be cramp in here if you come in," she stated with a matter-of-fact tone.

Naruto chuckled at her attempt to joke, "I don't mind," he simply answered. "So can I come in?"

Mei shrugged, "Guess, you can."

The front flap of her tent opened and came in the blond teen. He held a soft expression on his face that seemed to touch her heart. In his hands were the two steaming ramen cups that he had set out beside the fire. "Here's your ramen, Mei-chan," he said – Mei could make out an outline of the smile under his mask and they way his eyes closed, making an eye smile of some sort; it showed that he was genuine with what he was doing.

Mei shook her head, "Don't worry, Naruto. I'm not feeling very hungry right now. Didn't i say that I don't feel like dinner?"

"Come on, Mei-chan. You very well know that you need to eat," He handed the cup to her, gesturing for her to take it. "You know you want it."

"Fine, fine," She gave in with a laugh as she took the cup from Naruto's hand. Mei than patted at the empty space her, "Eat with me," she said with a grin. It was lucky that there was not much light, and that he was wearing a mask that covered half his face, because without it, Mei would've seen the blush that had appeared when she invited him to eat with her.

"Uh? Okay..." He replied with a tint of shyness in his voice. Naruto crawled into the tent and went to her side. For a couple of minutes, they ate their steaming cup of ramen in silence, but everyone knew that Naruto wasn't a quiet person. "You know," Naruto started, "I never found out why you just left me outside a couple of minutes ago."

Mei almost coughed out the food that was in her mouth, and tried to hide her shocked expression as best as she could. "Well you know..." she started, unsure of what she would say next. "I was tired," she lied, and Naruto could see that she was, very clearly.

Before she could blurt out other lies, Naruto had decided to speak, "You know Mei-chan, I can read you very well, and I can tell that you're lying," Naruto stated with a smile that he picked up from his masked sensei – the famous eye-smile.

"Wh-what are y-you talking?" she stuttered, looking away from the blond.

"You know what I'm talking," Naruto pushed with a knowing smirk. Really, Naruto didn't know what he was talking about, but it seemed that it was working.

"I-I really don't know what you're talking about, N-Naruto."

"You can't keep denying it, Mei-chan," Naruto kept pushing.

"I'm serious, Naruto! I don't know what you're talking about," Now she was panicking. How did Naruto read her so easily? Hell! How did he even find out about her little secret? Oh god. Was it _that _obvious?

Naruto sighed. He then took hold of her shoulders and gripped it firmly. "You can tell me, Mei-chan," His deep blue eyes were gazing at her with pure affection.

Mei gulped in response, but then sighed as she knew that there was no way she could get herself out of this – because she knew that once Naruto started anything, he'll finish it. "Ok! I think I love you! There!"

Naruto stared at her wide-eyed. His mouth was slightly gaping and the blush that covered his cheeks could almost be seen through his black mask. "Y-you? Y-y-ou l-lo-love me?" Now he was the one stuttering. "Are you sure?"

"I know I do, and I know I shouldn't," She fully turned her body away from him, hiding as much of her as she could. "It's wrong and I know it, but I just can't help. Since we left Konoha, I started to get attracted to you, and it grew stronger ever since," She sighed in regret. "I'm sorry; I have to get some air." Mei then proceeded to leave the stuffy tent, but was unable to when the only other person in the tent grabbed her arm and judging from the grip, the blond wasn't about to let go anytime soon.

"Don't go, Mei-chan," Naruto mumbled. His sky-blue eyes were gazing directly at her, and she didn't have the heart to leave him. Slowly, she crawled back to her original spot but she made sure to sit at a slightly different angle as so she didn't have to look at Naruto.

"You know, I also have feelings for you..." Naruto said in a low voice, but it was enough for Mei to hear, and it was enough to make her gasp from surprise.

Mei slowly turned her face to him. Her green eyes sparkled with hope as she just stared at into his blue eyes, "Are you serious?"

"I can't really say anything, but I definitely know that I feel something for you, and it's pretty strong," He said with a smile under his mask.

A smile also adorned itself onto her features, "I guess we'll call this out first date, then?"

**xXx**

**AN: **There we go, fourth chapter done (Hooray for me^.^) I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the romance development. I hope you don't think it's rushed, because I tried to make them a couple without them actually intimate in any way yet (e.g. No kissing).

And I hope you liked Naruto's 'new' look, I think that makes him more unique, and cooler :P

Next chapter is when things get complicated and is when the complication starts. As you know, Akatsuki is back and that means trouble. Hope to see all you reader in the next chapter :)

Well, don't forget to review ^,^

PEACE!

-FOXSAGE-


	5. Troublesome Oldies

**Mizukage's Bodyguard**

**Chapter 5: Troublesome oldies**

**AN: **I laughed at myself so hard when I realised i finished planning the whole story out of boredom. Seriously, while I was writing this chapter, I got bored (probably because nothing was coming out of my head at that time :P), and well, got sidetracked on doing something else, and that was writing a lot of crap into my planning word document that I'd made for this story. And without me realising it until I actually finished it: P I am sooo excited to write this story (it's gonna be sooo epic).

Though I was surprised when they changed the map of the elemental nations in this week's chapter, and it confused me like crazy: P But also, I have to use things from canon, since well, they made sense more.

Well, time for the story :)

**xXx**

The morning breeze blew all around, making gentle ruffle sounds with every tree it passed by. To others, that sound of ruffling trees were count as calming and peaceful, but for one particular blond, was startled by the gentle sounds brought by nature. It woke him up instantly from his blissful sleep, because right beside him was the young and beautiful Mizukage of Kirigakure, Mei.

The two were currently cuddled together on a single sleeping bag. Instead of sleeping inside it, they slept on top of it with Mei's ankle length auburn hair covering both of them. Her hair acted like a soft blanket; it was surprisingly warm, soft, and smelled like mango. It was no surprise that it has the scent of mangoes, since Mei's favourite fruit was mango. Naruto blinked a couple of times trying to clear his eyes out. As the blurriness dissipated, his attention was turned to the woman sleeping peacefully beside him.

A smile adorned his face as he gazed at her calmed face. Her hands were resting around his waist while her head was in the crook of his neck. He felt her breath tickling his neck, slightly soothing him while at the same time tickling him. The blond brought his left hand, which was currently resting itself on the female kage's back, up to caress her face. Her skin felt soft under his touch and smoother than anything he had touched in his entire life. But soon enough, Naruto knew that they had to get up and continue on their journey.

The 16-year old teen eased his way out of the young Kage's grasp before slowly going up onto his feet. Naruto decided to wake her up later after he had a quick rinse in the river and had cooked breakfast. He got out of the tent quietly, making sure that his footsteps were light and soft. Slowly, the young blond walked tiptoed to the river close by. As he arrived at the river, Naruto had a nice quick stretch of his upper and lower body to get the kinks out of his muscle before stripping down until only his boxers were left.

Naruto slowly entered the shallow river, making sure to take one step at a time, as there were a lot of rocks that he could slip onto easily. The water's temperature was mild, as it was slightly warmed up by the sun, but still held its refreshing coolness. He sank his body slowly into the water before starting to clean his body up. He started by splashing water to his face, awakening him more. Naruto then moved on to his hair, then his upper body, and so on.

While Naruto was having his bath, Mei had awaked, due to the lack of a certain blond in her grasp. At first, she thought that she had dreamt about the whole 'being-Naruto's-girlfriend' thing, but soon, she realised that it wasn't as she could smell the strong masculine smell of Naruto on her sleeping bag. She let out a stifled yawn while stretching her arms out, releasing all the tension that were put on them overnight. The red-head then gently rubbed her eyes slightly, distinguishing all the blurriness in them.

The Kage could hear Naruto washing himself by the river, since, as every knew, shinobi do have more sensitive hearing than normal civilians, due to their increased alertness from their everyday missions. She stayed in the tent as she did not want to startle her knew 'boyfriend' while he was cleaning himself up. Thinking about the word 'boyfriend' really made her heart tingle with giddiness. She hadn't had a boyfriend before and Naruto was her first, which made it all more special.

Her thoughts then drifted to last-night's event; after the two of them had confessed, they continued eating the ramen, but this time, with smiles on their face. Naruto had his mask pulled down as he did not know how to eat with his mask on like his old sensei. The night went on with both of them talking a bit more about each other, and little by little on that night, both learned something new about each other. But one thing that amazed both of them was that they both shared the same type of childhood – they were both shunned and ignored as a child.

She was surprised at first by his statement of his past, but she then realise why – damn Kyuubi. Mei could also tell that Naruto was just as surprised by _her_ statement about her past. Naruto was shunned because of the Kyuubi while she was considered an outcast because of her bloodline. After all the talking, the two had just lain in each other's arms until sleep took over them. The auburn haired woman had to admit, sleeping in the blond's arms were very comforting.

The young Kage laid back into her previous sleeping position while her hands roamed and caressed the spot where Naruto had slept. A small smile was apparent on her lips while she thought about all the good things that she and Naruto would have in the future – Though she knew that the journey there would be difficult. "Mei-chan?" It was Naruto's voice, and from what Mei could tell, he was making sure she wasn't doing anything that he might distract her from.

"Yes, Naruto?" Mei answered back softly. She slowly crawled out of the tent and smiled at the figure in front of it. There in front of her was Naruto, fully dressed in his new set of clothes (minus his cloak) and with his mask on. "What is it?"

"I think we should get a move on if we want to get to the meeting on time," Naruto suggested. "And you can use the river to wash yourself off."

Mei made a sly grin, "Trying to catch me naked, aren't you, Naruto?"

Naruto's cheeks were flushed to the max. He brought both his hands out and waved it like crazy, gesturing that he wasn't going to, "Nonono," He blurted in defence. "I'll stay here. Promise!"

Mei let out a soft morning chuckle, "Alright, Naruto. I believe you," A smile then took over her face as thought about a decent river bath. After a couple of days of walking, rinsing herself in the river sounds nice and refreshing. It made her shiver in delight.

As she walked away, Naruto immediately started making breakfast. As all shinobi on a mission, Naruto had stored a couple of simple food ingredients inside a scroll for situations like these. He could've just set a two instant ramen cups for breakfast, but he knew that first: Mei wouldn't have liked it. Second: They had just eaten ramen last night, which will of course make Mei vomit from eating the same thing again. And third: He wanted to make the breakfast a bit more...special.

The blond took out the scroll in which he had sealed all the ingredients in from his bag. He then unsealed all of its contents to see what he could make from them. Surprisingly, there were only three things he brought with him. Well, there was a loaf of bread, half a dozen eggs, and well...bacon? How the heck did he bring bacon in this type of journey? Then his brain suddenly remembered how. When he was back in the village, he made sure that the bacon was properly sealed into the scroll as so it wouldn't rot. Because when something is sealed, there was almost no chance of it rotting – a sealing scroll is like a refrigerator, which surprised him a lot when he found out about it.

So the 16 year old chunin thought of something simple, yet perfect for this occasion – The classic bacon and egg breakfast with toast bread. A small grin appeared on the whiskered teen's face; he hadn't had this type of breakfast in a long time, since all his breakfast was filled with instant ramen cups. Naruto only hoped that Mei would enjoy this.

After he unsealed all the needed cooking and eating utensils and re-sealed the ones that were unwanted, Naruto started frying both the eggs and bacon on top of the same pan he had brought with him. As the eggs and bacons fried, Naruto sat back and watched the clouds move along with the breeze guiding them.

**xXx**

Tsunade wasn't having very bright time. Even if the day was bright, she despised it with all her might. She had dark rings around her eyes which symbolised only one thing; she lacked the rest needed for this journey. "I damn you, Kakashi," she muttered sourly. It was all Kakashi's fault – He had gotten her and her current assistant, Sakura travelling in circles. First, the masked ninja forgot to bring a damn map! Then, he managed to get her and Sakura miss a town that could very well have an inn to sleep at. What else could go wrong next? That thought brought a shiver.

Kakashi let a sigh of guilt, "I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi replied. "I told you, I was a bit disorganised for this mission," He tried to explain. It was true he was disorganised for this mission, though he wasn't telling anything else other than that. It was too embarrassing.

It was then Sakura's turn to speak, "I don't know, Kakashi-sensei," she said with a thoughtful expression. "You've never been this organised before," she then stated. The three of them were currently walking along a road that ran along a shallow river. It was lucky that Kakashi managed to get himself organise after their last stop. And now, they were travelling into the right direction that led to Lightning.

They were almost at the border of Lightning; it was about a day's travel away. Not that far in his eyes. Kakashi knew what was to be expected in Kumo. From past experience, he knew that Kumo had a mountainous terrain – It also rained a lot there, and mostly cloudy, thus giving the place the name Kumogakure, the Village hidden in the clouds.

"So how far are we from Kumo?" Tsunade suddenly asked. The 50 year old blond was wearing her usual clothing, but with the exception of her Kage robes and hat. She never wore this unless it was something majorly important.

"I say about one and a half days from now," Kakashi answered in his usual expressionless voice. He had his hands in his pockets while his eyes were up gazing into the clouds. Even with his carefree look, his senses were at their highest, and anything that might be a threat to the three of them, he would know before it could happen.

Sakura, walking on the right side of Tsunade stared into the distance with a small frown. She had been frowning a lot since the disappearance of her blond teammate. She knew where he was and what he was doing there, but what she didn't know was, why didn't he even say goodbye to everyone at Konoha, or at least her? The two had been teammates since they started their shinobi career, and the whiskered blond didn't even bother to say something to her. She was half saddened by this, but half pissed too. If she ever crossroad with the blond again, she was going to give him a piece of her fist.

The pink haired chunin was now wearing very different attire. Instead of her normal red vest, she now wore the standard chunin vest over the standard black, long sleeved shirt. Instead of her light pink skirt, was a black skirt that covered her thighs down to above her knees. Under it was her normal black bicycle shorts that covered her bottom. As for shoes, she wore her black, open-toed high heels.

"You know," Sakura started, her nose sniffing the air around her thoughtfully, "Something smells like bacon and egg," she stated with a frown. It was hard, but Sakura managed to settle her grumbling stomach. Since, to tell the truth, the three of them hadn't eaten anything from the past two days.

Tsunade also noticed the smell. The blond took a big whiff from the air and tried to determine where the smell was coming from. "Um, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi said, interrupting her concentration on the smell.

"What is it?" She asked, annoyed at the interruption.

"The smell is coming from over there," He said with a dry voice. The masked shinobi brought his hand up and pointed into the direction of the river. "It seems like someone's having breakfast over there."

"Should we interrupt them?" Sakura asked with concern. She knew it was way rude for someone to interrupt someone else's breakfast, not to mention wrong. "Because I know that it would be rude to interrupt them."

"I think Sakura is right on that one, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi stated, "It is by far one of the rudest things people can do."

Tsunade laughed, "I don't know where you heard that from, Kakashi. But we're not going to interrupt them at all, just going to peek at what they're doing," she said with a smirk, "Unless that's rude too, Kakashi?"

Kakashi sighed, defeated. "You're the Kage here, Tsunade-sama."

"That's what I thought," The blond Hokage said with a smirk. She was the first to jump onto a tree and silently made her way to the area where the smell originated from. Sakura followed closely behind while Kakashi followed after a couple of seconds of hesitation.

"This is going to be bad," he muttered. The veteran jonin knew what lay beyond the trees as his trained senses had located a certain young blond cooking breakfast. Well, at least he tried his best trying to distract the others, right?

**xXx**

"And...done!" The blond chunin exclaimed with a big grin. Breakfast was finally cooked and ready to be eaten. He had carefully arranged the food onto two plates that he had set up beforehand while a shadow clone packed all the other unused things. The only thing Naruto had to do now was to wait for the Mizukage to finish cleaning herself up.

While he was fully dressed in his shinobi attire, he forgot to put on his armor – Arm guards, shin guards, and his vest. The blond sighed as the realisation hit him, "Damn," he muttered. Naruto then stood up onto his feet before shuffling himself into his tent where he left his other belongings. As soon as he got all his armor on, the blond's ears suddenly twitch when a little unexpected sound came from the trees. Someone was there; that was the first thing that came to his mind. Faster than the blink of an eye, he pulled out two kunais from his two pouches that were located behind his waist.

Naruto stood in his tent with one kunai in each hand, waiting for another sound to be made. He gripped his kunai tighter as he slightly crouched into his battle ready stance. He just needed one tiny, insignificant sound to know the enemy's location. And that was exactly what he got. In a split second, the blond threw the two kunai in the direction of the enemy. The two kunai whizzed through the fabric of the tent, tearing it and making two, small, clean cuts. Though a second after he threw the two kunai, Naruto rolled out of the tent while at the same time dislodging another two kunai knives from his two pouches.

When the two kunai he threw made contact to the tree he was targeting, three different figures jumped out of it before a little surprise that Naruto had set exploded. "Damn," Naruto muttered under his breath, "Almost worked." Those two kunai knives that he threw were already set with paper bombs.

"Naruto?" The voice that suddenly called his name startled him – a lot! "Is that you?"

"Tsunade?" He said with the same curiosity. From the shadows of the trees came out the 5o year old blond Hokage that had given him this mission. "Tsunade!" The blond then cheered. "What are you doing here?" But then, more surprises cam – Kakashi came out of the shadows with his old, usual, carefree expression. "Kakashi-sensei! You too?"

"Nice to see you too, Naruto," Kakashi replied coolly. Typical of him, Naruto thought.

"Naruto?" Another surprise came when a familiar pink-haired chunin stepped out of the shadows.

Sakura had a look of shocked written all over her face. As soon as she heard Tsunade called the enemy, Naruto, the pink haired chunin was confused. But the confusion almost dissipated completely when she got a good look at the blond. He had the same blue eyes as she remembered then, the same wild golden blond hair, though longer than before, and the same face structure. But one thing puzzled her most– why was he wearing a Kiri's headband and wore a mask like Kakashi's? Okay, that was two things, but it still puzzled her a lot.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" He called out, now copying Kakashi's famous eye-smile. "How are yo-" How he should have expected this, the blond thought. Naruto didn't get to finish his sentence as he was punched square at the face. The young blond groaned as he recovered from the assault. "What was that for?" He asked, groaning at the same time while gently rubbing the sore spot on his face.

"What was that for?" The pink-haired chunin repeated. Her voice sounded dangerous and sounded like it was about to erupt. "That was for...LEAVING WITHOUT EVEN TELLING ME!" She shouted with so much force that even the ground shook.

Naruto covered himself with both arms in an attempt to protect himself from the coming eruption. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he blurted in his defence.

"Ah, I like your new look," Kakashi suddenly said. The compliment was a bit...out of place, though the young blond, since he had just been whacked by one of the most daring girl in his life.

"Um? Thanks," The replied, unsure on how to responds.

"Hokage-sama?" All eyes then turned to the person where the voice originated from. Mei looked at all the leaf shinobis with a raised eyebrow. While she was having her little morning bath, she had heard an explosion and it disturbed, and so instantly dressed back up and proceeded to examined the campsite. "What an unexpected surprise to see you all hear."

"Ah, Mizukage-sama, nice to see you again," Tsunade replied with a genuine smile on her face.

"The Mizukage is a 'she'?" Sakura asked with a quirked eyebrow. She didn't mean to be rude, but she had thought the current Mizukage was a male, not female. And this woman was gorgeous!

"Sakura! That is not the way to talk in front of a Kage," Tsunade scolded. "Now... Sakura, this is Mei-sama, the Mizukage of Kirigakure."

The pink-haired chunin slightly bowed in response, "I apologize for my rudeness, Mizukage-sama," Sakura wasn't very happy with Naruto living with another female, but this had to be an exception. The problem was, after she had 'confessed' her feelings to Naruto when they were in the Land of Steel, Sakura had thought about it over and over again, and decided that her feelings for Naruto was that of a sister – with all her scolding and telling the blond what to do, it was fairly obvious. Though this wouldn't go too well with Hinata since she knew what the Hyuuga princess felt for Naruto.

"Good morning, Mizukage-sama," Kakashi greeted. He had bowed slightly, much like Sakura, and stayed in that position for another couple of seconds before recovering back into his usual posture.

"Ah, it's nice to finally meet you, Kakashi Hatake," Mei replied with the same respect that the Leaf ninja had shown. "Though not to be rude, why are you three here, exactly?"

It was then Tsunade's turn to answer. She let out a small chuckle before explaining, "Well you see, as you would have already known, there will be a meeting at Kumo in a few days, and we were on our way there when the delighting smell of breakfast entered our nostrils," she started with a steady face, "And well, I got curious and decided to check it out, and when I arrived here, there was no one watching over the food that was cooking, and when I was just about to leave, two kunai knives with paper bombs attached came flying over to me," The old blond Kage stopped and gave the younger blond a hard glare.

"Hey! I didn't know it was you!" The blond replied in his defence. He got up onto his feet and dusted off his clothing, removing any type of dust or dirt from it.

"So the explosion from before came from that?" The auburn haired Kage asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Pretty much," Naruto replied with a shrug.

"Well, I think we should leave now, seeing that we have already interrupted enough," Tsunade suggested with an apologetic smile attached to her face, though it changed into a frown when a certain one-eyed shinobi muttered an 'I-told-you-so'.

"No no, join us in breakfast, seeing that Naruto almost killed you, take this as an apology."

"Hey!" The blond teen whined. "It was an accident."

"But from what I can see, I don't think there's enough food for five," Kakashi stated with a frown hidden under his mask.

"Ahha!" Naruto exclaimed with a sly grin, "I got enough ramen cups for all!" Four loud groans could be heard through the entire area.

**xXx**

True to its name, Kumogakure was literally hidden in the clouds. Naruto's eyes were wide with amazement as he marvelled his surroundings. It had taken a full day without a single stop to reach here, and it slightly exhausted him out, but the journey wasn't enough to beat down his amazement for the use of the mountainous terrain to make an art of architecture. Naruto, along with Mei and the Konoha group had travelled together since the breakfast incident and had just arrived in Kumogakure a few minutes ago.

Now, the group were being led by a jonin of Kumo. His name was Darui of Naruto remembered properly. Like most other people from Kumo, Naruto noticed, Darui had the seemed-to-be usual dark skinned tone, while he also had the same silver hair as Kakashi. His silver was in a shaggy kind of style that completely went with his lazy, carefree demeanor. He wore a high collar, short sleeved, zip-up shirt, while on top of it, the silver haired shinobi wore a standard one-strap-over-one-shoulder Kumo vest.

From what Naruto could tell, the Kumo silver-head ninja seemed to be like a clone of Kakashi in terms of face and body expression. Though Naruto couldn't help but glance at his sensei then back to the Kumo ninja with new levels of amazement – He didn't know that there was more than one person that acted like Kakashi. The young blond wondered if this Kumo version of Kakashi read the books of the late Toad-sage. "So, where are we staying at?" Naruto, for some reason, suddenly asked.

Darui turned his head slightly to get a look at the person who had just asked him. It was that blond shinobi from Kirigakure that seemed to be wearing the same type of mask as the famous Kakashi Hatake. "You'll be staying at the best hotel available here. It's called 'Cloud-nine'," He answered, his voice a complete reflection of his lazy expression.

"Any other things that you can tell that might be important to us?" Mei then continued.

Darui shrugged, "Other than the meeting that will be held at the main tower tomorrow morning, there's nothing else that I could say other than to stay out of trouble," The comment earned a couple of chuckles and one unexpected cough.

For some odd reason, Naruto thought the comment that was just made by Darui was mostly aimed at him, and that startled him, resulting in a startled cough. "So, are there any other Kages that had arrived before us?" The masked blond asked in an attempt to recover from the sudden comment.

The silver-haired Kumo shinobi had a thoughtful face that only lasted a few seconds before returning back into its original lazy face, "Meh, other than you two," He said, his eyes gesturing towards Mei and Tsunade, "There's no one else. The Tsuchikage is due to arrive this afternoon, while the Kazekage is predicted to arrive late today, maybe after dusk."

"I see," Mei murmured with a nod.

"Well, I guess this is where our journey ends," Darui said as he suddenly stopped. His eyes then travelled to the building that would always amaze any tourist. He turned around to his guest and smirk when the response from them was as expected. "Welcome to Cloud-Nine."

Naruto and the others had their eyes wide with surprise, the structure in front of them was...well, amazing. Like most building, it was built around the surface of a small mountain; though this one was a bit more special, as the rest of the building was inside the mountain. Darui then continued and entered the hotel through the front entrance. The mixed group followed behind closely while their eyes marvelled all around.

The front entrance led into a narrow alleyway that led to the main building inside the mountain. The lobby was greatly stylised in the modern arts with its chandelier, carpeted floor, ceilings with carvings, and a reception desk that showed royalty. Darui and the group approached the counter with smiles on their faces, "These are the special guess that the Raikage told you about," Darui stated, his hands gesturing the person at the reception desk to look at the guest. "I think this is where I leave," he then said before slowly leaving the scene.

"I see," Said the woman currently in charge of the counter. "And you two must be the Mizukage and the Hokage," she stated, looking at the two woman with an air of authority hovering around them. "So how many rooms would it be, Hokage-sama?" She asked, directing her gaze to the Leaf shinobis.

"Three, it would be, and can the rooms be side-by-side?" The Hokage responded.

The woman smiled and nodded, "That can be done, Hokage-sama," The reception woman then did a couple of things on her computer before proceeding to give the keys out, "Here are your keys, hope you enjoy your stay."

"Thank you and we will," Tsunade answered back with a smile.

After the Konoha group left, the woman at the counter then changed her attention to the other Kage. "So what will it be? Two rooms I proposed?" She said, knowing too well what the answer would be.

"Actually, make it one room," Mei replied with a grin.

The woman and Naruto almost choked on their own respective breath after hearing the Kage's answer. "Not to be disrespectful, but are you sure, Mizukage-sama?" The woman asked again in an attempt to double check.

"Yes, I'm very sure," Mei said, her visible green eye travelling to the masked blond beside her, "I want my bodyguard to be as close to me as possible."

The woman knew what was going on here and she didn't want to hear anything about it anymore, due to personal reasons. "Right, here are your keys," She said and handed the two Kiri shinobis their keys. "I hope you two enjoy your stay."

While the sun was still bright and shining outside, Mei and Naruto decided to stay inside in their own respective rooms. Mei was currently laying beside Naruto on a King sized bed still in their shinobi uniform. The young Kage had her head rested at the crook of his neck while one of her hands was wrapped around his waist. The journey had taken a lot out of them, and they couldn't blame their bodies for being this tired after putting a lot of energy into the journey.

Mei sighed as she felt the light heartbeat of her first and new boyfriend, "You know, Naruto-kun, I wish we could stay like this forever," Mei said with a dreamy look on her face.

Naruto chuckled in response, "Same here, Mei-chan," the blond calmly replied. After the two of them had unpacked, Naruto made sure to close all the windows and blinds so the two of them could get a little 'privacy'. The blond had one arm wrapped around her waist, while the other hand was busy caressing the mango scented, auburn hair of his new girlfriend. This was one of those times where he would call total bliss. Lying beside the one person whom you cared for the most was one of the things that Naruto had always wanted and it finally came true. He felt truly bless for this, to be chosen as the boyfriend of one of the most beautiful woman in the world. "I really feel lucky to have met you, Mei-chan," The blond mumbled.

"I feel lucky too, Naruto," Mei replied, smiling at the memory of their first meeting. "Though we did meet in one of the oddest way." Their first meeting was one thing that the two remembered vividly, especially because of the little accident that happened at that time. "I know you enjoyed the feel of my butt, Naruto," she said in a seductive voice. The response was what she wanted as she heard his gulp. In a blink of an eye, Mei was already on top of the blond. She held a seductive smile on her face as she inched her face closer to his. "You did, didn't you, Naruto?" The red head Kage was inches from his face and the blond could feel the blood rushing to his face.

It was Mei's normal personality to be a bit seductive, and it was normal for people of Kirigakure to see their Kage 'flirt' with other men, but of course, it was only for the fun of it. Mei had done this little stunt to him many times before, but only for the sake of laughter, though now, it was another matter. Naruto could feel her hot, steamy, breath teasing his skin, making him shiver. Though all good things always come to an end – As she was about to move to his lips, a knock from the door ended their little private session.

Mei let out a sigh of disappointment, "I'll be back, don't go anywhere," She purred into his ear before making her way to the door. There was a clicking sound when she fully turned the door knob, opening the door. There stood Sakura, Tsunade, and Kakashi in front of their door, "Um...hi?"

"Nice to see you still awake, we thought you'd already be in bed, but since you're still awake, can you please tell us where Naruto's room is, the reception lady said that you would know," Tsunade explained. The thing was, she, along with Sakura and Kakashi wanted to have a little chat with the young blond, just to have a little catch up on his life.

Mei almost choked on her breath when she heard her request, "Nar-Naruto? Um... wait here, I'll be right back," The auburn haired Kage said nervously before scrambling back into the room leaving a very confuse Hokage along with her two subordinates outside. "Naruto!" She called out in a hushed tone.

And as should be expected from a shinobi of his calibre, Naruto arrived at the Mizukage's side at record time, "What's wrong?"

"Tsunade!" She cried out, "She wants to know where your room is," Mei wasn't sure if she wanted to let the Hokage know of her relationship with Naruto, they had only been together for two days, for Kami's sake! "Do you want to tell them?"

Naruto sighed. He had been expecting this, but he didn't expect it to happen this fast. The blond had made plans for problems like this, but all of them were for, maybe after he and Mei had dated at least for one month already, but it seemed those plans that he had thought about wouldn't work now. "I guess the only to solve this is to confront it head first," Naruto said with a sigh.

Mei looked at Naruto with concern in her visible green eye, she didn't like his plan one bit, but she knew that it was the way to go. She brought one of her hand to his cheek and gently caressed his whisker marks, "We'll do this together," she said, a small genuine smile appearing upon her features.

Naruto took her hands in his and slowly made their way to the door. "Um, Tsunade-baa-chan," Naruto said as they re-opened the door, "I heard you were looking for me," Tsunade and the other two Leaf shinobis couldn't stop their eyes from bulging out of their sockets when they saw their favourite blond chunin holding the hands of the Mizukage in an affectionate way.

Naruto had a feeling that this wouldn't roll too well.

**xXx**

**AN: **Well that's it for this chapter :) And as you can see, this chapter was very light and was leaning more towards romance, but rest assured action fans, the war will be coming soon. As I had stated in the AN in the past couple of chapters, this story will build up in time.

See ya next time ^.^

Don't forget to review, they will be much appreciated.

PEACE!

-FOXSAGE-


	6. Chapter 6 War Preparations

**AN:** Update? What, an update? WTF!

I know, you guys hate me, don't you? Well, I don't blame you, since it was my fault for not updating in a long time. But I have a reason for my lateness – It's called...erm, research? Yeah, research. I stopped writing for a while because I wanted to see what the manga had to offer. I just want to see how Kishimoto does his war before I make mine; it's all part of planning :)

Please continue reading if you are still here

**Mizukage's Bodyguard**

**Chapter 6: War preparations**

"So, how are things going with the Shinobi alliance?" Kabuto asked. The silver-haired, glass-wearing medic-nin sat around a small circular desk. He was wearing a dark greyish/brown cloak connected to a cowl. Half his face was covered in the shadows brought by the hood.

For some time now, Kabuto had been part of the Akatsuki group. He had managed to convince Madara with a little deal, and it had worked. He couldn't help smirking inside as he saw his ultimate plan go into place. _Phase 1, done..._

In front of him sat Madara. He had a new mask – rather than his old spiralled mask with one eye-slit, now he wore a mask with the rinnegan's rippled pattern combine with the tomoes of the sharingan and now with two eye-slits.

Madara leaned forward onto the table letting more light on to his shadowed face; his eyes, Kabuto noticed, were unique – His right eye was the sharingan, while his left eye held the legendary dojutsu, the rinnnegan. It'd been a couple of days now since he had obtained the ripple-patterned eye – A couple of days ago, Madara had 'visited' an ex-member of Akatsuki. The visit didn't go that well as he had wanted. The ex Akatsuki member, Konan, had resisted against his Idea of resurrecting the Juubi, and also refused to give him what he wanted, Nagato's eyes, the rinnnegan. The purple haired woman was quite a formidable foe, if he hadn't used one of the sharingan's greatest move, the Izanagi, he wouldn't be here now. "It seems that they had arranged another Kage meeting, meaning that they know we're on the move," Madara replied calmly.

Kabuto nodded, "So they're getting ready for us, what do you propose we do now?"

"I've sent Zetsu to Kumo to spy on their little meeting. We will then plan what we are to do depending on Zetsu's report of the meeting. But I was planning on capturing the Eight-tails and Nine-tails first," The masked Uchiha explained. "The faster we obtain them, the better. If we managed to get those Jinchuurikis early, we'll be able to revive the Juubi and end this war."

"I suppose I can see your reasons," Kabuto agreed with a nod. "But, there is one more problem," his eyes suddenly sparkled wickedly and a smirk appeared. "What are we going to do with the spy?"

Immediately after he said it, a figure jumped down from the shadows of the ceiling and retreated towards the door.

_How did they know?_ Taro thought, sweat forming on his forehead. The Tsuchikage had entrusted him to spy on Akatsuki, but it seemed that he had failed. Everything was going fine until now. He had made sure to cover his tracks on the journey here. He had made sure that his infiltration was silent, and definitely made sure that there were no witnesses or evidence. How did Kabuto detect him?

His train of thoughts were stopped when his only exit was blocked by the cloaked medic. "Where do you think you're going?" Kabuto asked and licked his lips hungrily. "Do you really think you can escape?"

Taro didn't listen; he just took out a kunai and got ready for battle. He was determined to get out of here and finish his mission. He had to tell the Kages that there's a spy among them. Taro knew that escaping was his top priority. If he could somehow distract the cloaked shinobi enough, he might just have a chance at escaping.

But before he could even put his plan into action, everything around him started to go change. Everything turned jet black before melting down as if it was a liquid in the first place. Suddenly, in the blank darkness, a pair of eyes appeared in front of him. Taro couldn't keep his mouth shut from shock. The two eyes were different, one he knew was the sharingan with the familiar three tomoes, but the other one, he wasn't very sure about it, but Taro knew that it was dangerous.

"Now," A voice said from the background. "Let's see what I can do with you," a sudden pause followed. Taro knew whose voice it was, and that very knowledge set his heart into overdrive. He couldn't take this feeling. It was as if he was being suffocated from the inside. "Ah, I know... how about you play spy for me."

That was all he heard other than his screams of pain.

**xXx**

"Naruto! What's the meaning of this!" Tsunade yelled while pointing towards Naruto's joint hand with the Mizukage's.

Naruto sighed and closed his eyes. "Calm down baa-chan, you're going to make a scene."

"Oh hell yeah!" Tsunade replied back harshly. "I'll make sure to make a scene!"

"Hokage-sama, I think it's wise to keep it down," Kakashi said gently. He actually figured that Naruto was into the Mizukage since he first saw them together. It was quite sad that Naruto had given up on Sakura, but it'd happen someday. Kakashi just hoped that Tsunade and Sakura could keep their dangerous temper down. Well, actually, make it Tsunade only – Sakura seemed awfully quiet.

"Hokage-sama," Mei started slowly with her most confident voice. "Please, we'll discuss this inside."

Tsunade's anger seemed to have cooled a bit, but just a tiny bit. She blew out fume from her nose as she went inside. "This better be good." Tsunade stalked her way inside and plopped down roughly onto a sofa. "Well? You told me to come in, why are you still there?" She gave a glare to both Kakashi and Sakura, signalling them to move in.

Naruto was sweating like crazy. The sweat might've not be on his face, but his body was drenched. He was drop dead scared of Tsunade. He knew what it felt like to be punched by her, and he definitely did not want experience it again or anytime soon. And this time, if he were to say the wrong words and get punched, he was definitely gone; not even the Kyuubi could save him. Because this time, Tsunade had a reason to kill him.

He gingerly made his way to the living area and took a seat on the sofa directly in front of the one Tsunade and the Konoha group were sitting on. Mei then joined him shortly after. She had a confident expression, but Naruto knew her well enough to see her fingers trembling lightly. She wasn't scared of being killed by Tsunade, she was afraid that Tsunade wasn't going to accept her. Naruto took hold of her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

Tsunade seemed to have seen the little movement and immediately intercepted it with her voice, "Explain, now!"

Both Mei and Naruto fidgeted in their seats nervously, "Well you see..." Naruto started.

"We erm- I mean...," Mei then added.

"Spit it out!" Tsunade's honey brown eyes turned hard as stone as she darted her voice from the Blond shinobi to Red-haired Kage. She didn't know why she was acting this way. Shouldn't she be happy that Naruto? After all, the young shinobi deserved some love in his life. _But he is loved back in Konoha_, her mind fought back. Why was she so against this?

Sakura

Realisation dawned on Tsunade. She wasn't mad because Naruto was with a girl, she was mad because Naruto was with the wrong girl. From the first time she saw Naruto and Sakura, she imagined their future together and what they could achieve together. Naruto and Sakura would've been a great couple. Now she ruined it by sending Naruto to that... seductive bitch.

Tsunade looked over to Sakura, the young medic had a faraway look on her face, a sad one that is. Tsunade returned her glance back to Mei, hatred boiling in her blood – The woman took away her student's only happiness.

Kakashi stood against a wall beside the sofa that Tsunade was currently sitting on. His gaze was at her and Sakura at all times, but it seemed that he only had to watch the blond Kage – Sakura looked to be in deep thought, but no bad vibe coming from her, but Tsunade was releasing a lot of killing intent. He just hoped that she wouldn't do anything irrational or anything that could jeopardize the Alliance.

He knew what Tsunade was thinking, but it was how life worked. He would've been very happy if Naruto ended up with Sakura, they would've turned into one hell of a couple, but things like this change over time, especially at the time it was taking for Sakura to make up her mind about Naruto.

Kakashi's lone eye then turned towards the new couple. A sad smile tugged at his lips. He was happy that Naruto found love, but he was somehow disappointed that he had given up on his last love. Naruto was lucky to have the Mizukage, she was strikingly beautiful, elegant as a female Kage could be, and had a little bit of seductiveness in her. A great mix, Kakashi mused.

"You guys are having a baby, aren't you?" Tsunade suddenly said anger evident in her voice. "A mistake from a one nighter that you started, I presumed?" She said, glaring accusingly at the red-haired Kage.

"I beg your pardon!" Mei shouted, standing up roughly from her seat.

"You heard me, Mei-_sama_," Tsunade retorted, standing up herself with her chin held high.

The two Kage, glared at each other, each thinking about making the first move. Before Naruto or even Kakashi could react to the situation, Sakura entered the conflict and attempted to fix it. "Just leave Naruto alone," Sakura said softly to Tsunade, a fake smile tugging at her lips.

"But Sakura-" Tsunade tried but was cut-off.

"Just please, it's Naruto's choice," She said firmly. "It's none of our business." Sakura then looked away and walked over to the door gently, not giving the people behind her a second glance.

Kakashi sighed, relief. He was proud of Sakura, she seemed to have taken it in and accepted it, but he could see a trace of sadness in her features. He then looked over to Tsunade, "Tsunade-sama, I think Sakura is right on this matter, it's not of our concern."

Tsunade sagged, but her glare was still strong. "Fine," she muttered grudgingly, "I'll see you at the meeting tomorrow." Tsunade then stalked her way out of the room, Kakashi following behind. But before he left, Kakashi turned and gave Naruto and Mei and apologetic look.

"I'm sorry about this," Kakashi said sheepishly. "I hope we didn't offend you in any way, and Mizukage-sama, I'm sure that our Hokage didn't mean to say those unnecessary words to you, I apologize on her behalf on that."

Before Naruto or Mei could say another word, Kakashi had left the room.

Mei then collapsed down onto the sofa behind her. She covered her face with both of her hands then sobbed. "It's not going to work, Naruto."

Naruto was immediately beside her, his arms around her protectively. "What are you talking about, Mei, of course it will," he tried to assure her.

Mei sobbed harder and found sanctuary on Naruto's chest. "No it won't! Weren't you just here a couple of seconds ago, your Kage hates me!"

"No she doesn't," Naruto said softly. He caressed her back affectionately, calming her sobs down considerably. "She just doesn't know you well yet, I know that she'll like you if you give her time to get to know you."

"Really?" Mei looked up, she looked so frail and fragile. Her cheeks were stained with tears, eyes puffy from crying, but her face was still beautiful and glowing as usual.

Naruto couldn't help but smiling broadly. She looked so cute to him. He brought a hand up to her face and wiped a rolling tear away. "I'm sure of it, Mei-chan." He then kissed her forehead gently.

**xXx**

Kakashi walked behind Tsunade with both hands in pockets. To people passing by, Kakashi did not look like an intimidating ninja, especially with his easy going demeanor, but for everyone who knew him, he was still deadly even if he looked not to be.

Kakashi stared at the two figures walking in front of him with his lone eye. First, his eye gazed at the blond-haired one then moved to the pink-haired beside her. He could tell from how their slightly slouched posture that their minds were preoccupied, probably with what had just happened minutes ago.

For what seemed like ages, the three of them finally arrived at their doors, but neither Kakashi nor Sakura were leaving Tsunade's side to go into their respective rooms. Tsunade, not acknowledging their presence, opened her door and left it open as she went inside. Both Kakashi and Sakura followed her closely, closing the door behind them in the process.

Tsunade's room was almost the same as Naruto's, except smaller. It had one bedroom with a king sized bed, a well furnished bathroom with a large Jacuzzi that could probably fit ten to twelve people, and a living area filled with expensive furniture. Only a person with a Kage status could afford a hotel room like this.

Tsunade sat on a black leather sofa slowly and eased her back onto the back. Sakura sat beside her, knees drawn closely together with her hands resting on them. Kakashi simply leaned against a wall with his arms crossed and a blank face.

There was a few seconds of silence before Tsunade finally spoke, "I can't believe this," she said, her voice barely a whisper. Tsunade took a long deep breath and exhaled it slowly, "I can't believe Naruto left you for _her_!"

"Stop it!" Sakura yelled out, jumping out of her seat in the process. "Why can't you just accept it? Naruto's moved on, alright! It's not his fault that he found love somewhere else, if it's anyone's fault, it's mine!" The pink-haired collapsed down onto the sofa, face now filled with flowing tears. "I made him wait too long, it's my fault!"

Tsunade's feature totally changed from anger to one of sympathy. She pulled Sakura into her chest and hugged her protectively. "My chest hurts, shishou," Sakura cried into her chest. "Why does it hurt so much?"

"It's going to be alright, Sakura," Tsunade said gently into Sakura's ear, caressing her pink hair in the process. "It's going to be alright."

Kakashi stared sympathetically at Sakura. What she was saying is true, she did make Naruto wait to the point where the blond felt that he wasn't wanted. But Sakura was also wrong, it wasn't her fault – actually, it's no one's fault. Kakashi knew that Sakura felt that she wasn't ready for a relationship, even with what her feelings told her. It was all sad, really.

Kakashi stared out the window, his lone eye gazing into the greying clouds. _How would Minato-sensei handle this?_ He thought sadly.

**xXx**

The next morning turned out to be quite grey, the sky was fully covered by a thick layer of cloud that seemed to be getting even thicker, not to mention darker. Was this a normal morning for the people in this village? It was sure a depressing sight for a morning.

Naruto woke up with a shiver. He felt a light, feather like touch brushing against his bare back. It was warm, very warm. He felt the heat seeped into his skin, giving him warm sensations as it glided over his skin. It was highly comforting.

Naruto didn't even look back to see what was caressing him, as soon as his eyes were open they were immediately pulled in by the emerald green ones directly in front of him. Mei was staring at him affectionately but looked to be in deep thought. A smile tugged on Naruto's lips. "Good morning, Mei-chan."

The two were currently in bed, side-by-side and facing each other. Mei had her long auburn hair act like a blanket and covered both her and Naruto. They didn't even need to sleep under the sheets, her hair was enough to keep them warm. Not to mention that Naruto just couldn't get enough of her hair, it smelled so wonderful.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as she heard his voice, a smile of her own appeared. Mei wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer to her, enveloping her with his warmth. She nuzzled her face into his bare chest and released a relief sigh. Mei felt content with the way she was now, she wished that this moment would last forever, but of course this was reality and it meant that both of them had to get up soon. Soon, but not yet.

"Morning, Naruto-kun," she replied against his chest, sending shivers up his spine.

Naruto responded by setting his nose down onto her head and relished her addictive scent. God, she was intoxicating.

The two of them stayed in that position for quite a while before Mei removed her head from his chest and started to shift way. Her attempt to get away was short-lived as Naruto immediately pulled her back by her waist and gripped her tightly, but not uncomfortably, against him. "Stay," Naruto simply mumbled into her ear.

A soft smile appeared on her features, "Naruto..." she started gently. "You know we have to go soon."

"Yeah, soon," Naruto replied, a gentle smile of his own appeared. "But not now." He then nuzzled his face into her neck, inhaling her scent hungrily.

Mei suddenly let out a stifle moan and lifted her head up, giving Naruto more access to explore her neck. She wrapped her slender arms around his neck and ran her fingers through his wild golden hair. But when things started to really kick in, a knock was sounded from the door.

Both Naruto and Mei separated in an instant and were sitting upright, faces faced into the direction of the front door. Mei was the first to regain her mentality; she immediately stood up and quickly wrapped her night-dress clad body with one of the hotel's robe. She blew Naruto a little apology kiss before making her way to the door.

While Mei took care of the visitor, Naruto slipped himself into the bathroom and had a quick wash of his face and hair and a good brush of his teeth before getting dressed into the black tank top with the mask connected.

Naruto looked at himself in the mirror for a short second to see if there were any traces of sleep left on his features. Satisfied that he looked good enough, Naruto strolled out of his bedroom and to the door where Mei stood talking with what seemed to be a cloud shinobi, a kunoichi to be exact. She had short blond hair with a fringe, a bust that could pretty much rival Tsunade's.

Naruto knew the woman; she was the captain for the cloud team that went to Konoha to deliver the message about Sasuke to the Hokage. How could he forget, the tanned girl from her team had beaten him to a pulp, with his permission.

Mei noticed his presence and turned to acknowledge him. "Oh, there you are Naruto. I want you to meet someone," she said and gestured him towards the door, towards the blond haired woman who was staring at him like he was some kind of mythical creature from sky and beyond. "Samui, I want you to meet Naruto, my personal bodyguard."

"Hi," Naruto greeted cheerfully. "Nice to meet you."

Even with his cheerful demeanor, the blond's stare did not waver. "Naruto?" she said, testing the way it rolled on her tongue. "Funny, I recognise that name from somewhere, but it seems that I cannot remember."

"Really?" Naruto said hurriedly, obviously panicked. No one was supposed to know his real identity; it was the sole reason of his mask. "I wasn't aware of that, but you know, there's always someone else in the world with the same name."

"Yeah, true," Samui said blankly, face expressionless. "But I remembered him having blond hair like yours too."

Naruto almost flinched from surprised. "W-what?" he stammered. "I'm s-sure that i-it's just a co-coincidence."

Naruto looked over to Mei for help but she seemed to be amused by the whole matter. How could she be amused at such a critical time?

A thoughtful expression appeared on Samui's face, an expression that Naruto definitely did not want to see. "Maybe," she said with a nod, then her suddenly eyes darted to his and her expression turned into a daring one. "So, just to make sure, may you lower your mask?"

There was a moment of silence from all three of them, Samui was still gazing at him daringly, and he was silenced to the point of disbelief. Did she just ask him what she had just asked? Did he hear properly? All these questions his head asked answered with a big 'yes'. Naruto, not knowing what to say, gave the best answer he could muster. "What?"

Out of nowhere, the two women surrounding him laughed. Naruto stared at both of them incredulously. What was so funny? His eyes darted from Mei to Samui, confusion written all over his face. "What's so funny?" He asked, pouting.

"Aww, I told you he looks cute when he's confused," Mei said to Samui, her laugh dying down. "Isn't he adorable?" She walked over to Naruto and gave him a tight hug.

"A cutie and a hero, what more can you get," Samui replied, eyeing Naruto from head to toe openly.

"And a sweetie, too," Mei added softly with a smile, now releasing Naruto from the hug.

Naruto, still in his world of confusion, stood still and stiff, not even reacting to the hug. Again, all he could say was, "What?"

The two women laughed again, but not as hard as before. Naruto, finally returning into the real world opened his mouth to speak again but closed it before anything was said. "Okay, no more games," Samui said lightly. She held her hand towards Naruto for a handshake, "Hi, I'm Samui, jonin of Kumogakure."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her suspiciously but took the handshake, cautiously that is. "I'm-"

"No need," Samui interrupted, her voice now cool and calm. "Mizukage-sama over here already told me about you, Uzumaki Naruto, chunin of Konohagakure."

Again, Naruto was dumbfounded. He looked over to Mei, eyes questioning. "Don't worry Naruto, Samui won't tell anyone," Mei said with a smile.

"You two know each other?" Naruto asked, more confused than ever.

"Oh, we knew each other," Mei started, a faraway smile appearing on her face.

"I met her before you were even in the academy," Samui continued with a nod. "I met her on my first mission as a chunin captain, though as her enemy."

"After that, we kept on running into each other on random missions and we somehow became friends," Mei added.

Finally, Naruto got the whole picture. "Oh," Naruto said in realisation. "I guess it's nice to meet one of Mei's old friends."

"Cool," Samui answered simply.

"So, how did you know I was here?" Mei then asked. The two girls then blasted into a full out conversation like best-friends who hadn't seen each other for years, which was pretty much their case.

Naruto slowly backed away, leaving the two girls to their business. He wouldn't want to ruin it for her, she looked so happy today and seeing her old friend helped it more, she was a total opposite from what she was yesterday. He eased into the bedroom quietly, with a satisfied smile on his face as he saw the glee on Mei's face – She had never looked so happy, in his opinion.

**xXx**

Like all other buildings in Kumogakure the Kage tower was built into the mountain. Also like usual, the Kage tower was the grandest building around with its massive size and unique design. Naruto whistled, astonished. "That is one hell of a building," he murmured to Mei who was walking beside him.

Naruto was dressed professionally in his shinobi attire, a black tank top connected to a mask that covered the bottom part of his face. Over it was a light metal chest plate, equipped for extra protection. His pants were standard shinobi pants, black, slightly baggy for better movements, and had multiple slots around the waist area for easy to reach kunais. On his feet were blue shinobi sandals and over it all was the specially made red trench cloak, high collar to give him a superior look and black flame running around the hem of the coat. Overall, Naruto looked so professional that he looked like a Kage himself rather than a bodyguard of one.

"Meh," Mei replied, disinterested. "I reckon Mist's is better."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Come on, you have to give it some credit, it does look amazing."

Mei sighed, defeated. "I guess it does," she said softly but then quickly added, "But Mist's is still better."

Naruto shook his head, amused. "Whatever." The lobby of the tower practically oozed elegance with its nicely polished marble floor, grand furniture, masterly carved designs on the ceiling. Kumogakure might be a more military type village but the place still had style. Like other Kage towers, the place was full with busy shinobi bustling around with their own jobs. One in particular though walked straight to them.

She had the same dark coloured skin as other Kumo natives and had short hair, _red_ hair that is. She had a somewhat sharp predatory look enhanced more with her yellow coloured eyes. Naruto recognised her immediately; she was the girl who was part of the Kumo team that came to Konoha for information about Sasuke. She was the girl that had beaten him down. Karui was it?

"You must be the Mizukage," she said in a formal tone and bowed slightly. "My name is Karui, and I'm in charge of escorting you to the War room."

Mei bowed in reply, "Nice to meet you, I'm Mei and this is my bodyguard," she said and gestured towards Naruto.

Naruto, following Kakashi's attitude, only bowed with a blank expression lying on his face. It was the perfect mask for his job. Naruto tensed slightly as his eyes saw the widening of her eyes as she looked at him. Her widened eyes immediately settled when he saw her eyes gaze over at his headband, his Mizu headband. "It's a pleasure to meet you," Naruto said calmly in a voice that was completely out of his character.

Her gaze stayed on him for a few more seconds before turning away and gesturing Mei and him to follow. Mei instantly followed but Naruto waited until Mei passed him before he too followed. A proper bodyguard always protect the back. They had to climb up quite a few stairs and had to walk through what seemed to be a maze before they reached the entrance to the War room.

But before either Mei or Naruto could admire the beautifully carved-on huge two doors acting as the entrance to the War room, the Konoha group came. It was unexpected but in a way it was somehow expected as this was a _Kage_ meeting and Tsunade _is_ a Kage.

They came from the opposite side, probably took another set of stairs. Their escort was Darui, the silver haired guy from yesterday. Naruto felt his heart beating faster as he saw them, his eyes darting back and forth between Mei and Tsunade, worried. He hoped they didn't make a scene, especially in a place like this, even _he_ knew that...well, unless necessary.

There was an awkward silence as both parties took in each other's presence. Naruto felt the tension rise, the air felt somehow more... thicker, or was it just him? He hated silence, more than anything else; it made the world feel dead to him. "Tsunade-sama," He said bowing, attempting to kill the silence and stay within character.

Tsunade's eyes seem to soften as he said it. It was the first time that Naruto had addressed her respectively, but it didn't feel quite the same as when he would call her 'baa-chan', there was no love in it. She knew what Naruto was doing and she just might go along with it, even if she didn't particularly like Mei.

She looked to her right, to Sakura. She had a weak smile on, a fake one. Tsunade felt her heart clench in sympathy as her memory replayed yesterday's events. Sakura had cried for what seem to be forever, against her chest and under her arms. She was her student, and she was very protective of her even in emotion.

Her eyes moved back to Naruto, sadness rising into her system. How could he leave Sakura? Why did he leave Sakura? Why Mei? All those questions felt unanswered to her even when the answer was right in front of her – Naruto was happy, that was it. But in that process, a heart was broken. Tsunade really wished that she hadn't sent him to be her bodyguard; why didn't she just send Kakashi? Then she remembered her purpose, to protect Naruto.

It was time to accept Naruto's decision. She smiled at that thought but when her eyes looked back to Sakura, it turned into a frown – She might have accepted Naruto's decision, but accepting the subject of Naruto's decision might take some time.

The two parties entered the room quietly and it seemed that they were the last two. The room was plain in a sense, not as decorative as the corridors or the lobby. It had no windows and the reason for it was quite obvious. The walls were a yellowish white that gave the room a lighter atmosphere even when the purpose of the room was quite heavy. In the middle of the room was a huge round table where all the Kage sat around.

Naruto recognised almost all of them except two. He recognised Gaara with his siblings standing as guards behind him. He remembered the Raikage vividly from their encounter; he was a big man with a body that could probably destroy mountains. The one he didn't recognised was the short man with a large, stone shaped nose. From the headbands his two bodyguards were wearing, the short man seemed to be the Tsuchikage. The other one, dressed in sleek black silk kimono was probably the samurai from the Land of Steel. Sadly though, Naruto didn't know his name.

Mei took a vacant seat beside Gaara and gave a little greeting to everyone present in the room before getting comfortable in her chair. Naruto stood respectively behind her like all the bodyguards in the room did. He brought his arms up to his chest and crossed them, now all he had to do was wait and watch. His eyes glance over all the bodyguards present, they all had a partner. Actually, all the leaders in the room had two bodyguards; Mei was the only one with one.

Naruto felt pride running through his system – Mei had put a lot of trust in him to not request for another ninja to accompany her.

The meeting started as soon as all the leaders were seated. They first discussed about recent Akatsuki movements then moved on each village's army size. The topics the Kages discussed jumped from one to another then back. They argued, they agreed and they kept on talking.

"This is where Akatsuki are currently hiding at," said Mifune, the now named samurai. He brought his index finger and pointed over the map, on a location marked with a big red 'x' – The Rain country. "Rain is practically surrounded, if we place our armies at the right places around the place, we'll be able to keep them contained."

Tsunade stood up and examined the map laid out on the table. "Rain, again? But the people there are still recovering from the last war," she said thoughtfully. Memories of her time and Jiraiya played in her mind. Rain was hit hard by the last war, the country couldn't bear taking another hit – It was because of the last war that Nagato had turned the way he was.

Mifune sighed, "It seems so, but it's the only to go."

"I have to agree with this," The Raikage then said. "If we keep them contained, it'll be easier to wipe them out. Tsunade, if we put Konoha's army around here," he pointed at the border between Fire and Rain. "Suna, here," his finger then moved to Wind's border. "And-"

"They moved," the Tsuchikage suddenly said. He didn't bother to stand from his chair as he talked. "The Akatsuki moved. Rain was their headquarters when Pein was still in 'charge'. My scouts have reported that they moved-" One of his bodyguards, a huge person, kinda fat in Naruto's eyes, dragged the map over to the Tsuchikage so he could reach. "-Here," he finished. His finger pointed on the peninsula in between Earth country and Lightning. "The Mountain's Graveyard they called it."

The Raikage's eyebrow scrunched together as he pieced his thoughts together. "I've been there before, ten years ago. That place is the very definition of hell, the mountains are almost impossible go over and the place stinks of death. Not a suitable place for a war."

The six leaders then started their expected argument about army placement. Naruto, even without interest, listened intently into the argument. He might need to know this for when he was Hokage; after all, it was still his dream. It took quite a long time before the six leaders could agree on a strategy. "Okay, if we put Konoha's and Iwa's army here," Mifune said, fingers pointing over the border of Konoha, Waterfall and Sound. "We'll have a complete surround. Suna can be the backup for the army on this side and Kumo on this side."

"What about Mizu," Mei asked calmly.

Mifune smirked. "Mizu will be the backup of the backups, but I would also propose that a quarter of your army should be placed around here," Mifune brushed his fingers over the ocean surrounding the peninsula in which Akatsuki's are basing their headquarters at. "I believe your village are experts on water warfare?"

Mei returned the smirk, "We'll make sure they never even touch the water."

Gaara rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he examined the map. "What are your samurais going to do?"

"We'll be helping Konoha and Iwa in the front lines, my samurais like battle head-on," Mifune replied calmly.

The Raikage nodded in agreement and soon all the Kages followed. "I see, everyone agrees. We'll proceed with this plan then." The tanned Kage then interlaced his fingers together. "Now, on to the next topic – How are we going to handle the Jinchuurikis?"

Everyone on the table stiffened, including Naruto, but no one noticed. The Raikage continued, "I believe that they should be contained – It'll be easier for us to know that they are safe, after all, Akatsuki's goal is to capture them." Another argument erupted from the leaders, though all the way through it, they weren't aware of the Jinchuuriki among them.

Naruto couldn't help clenching his fist. They were going to contain him? That wasn't fair, at all. He could fight, they knew he could fight, especially Tsunade, but why was she agreeing with this. It seemed that Mei was the only one trying to support him, even if it was by a little.

"I have a place that we could hide them," The Raikage announced. "Over here," he said pointing over to the ocean between Kumo and Mizu. "There's an island there, a moving island."

"Moving island? I don't recall any moving islands over there," Mei said, inspecting the map.

The Raikage smirked, "As I said, it's a moving island, it moves around. The island is actually a large turtle, about the same size as your Forest of Death, Tsunade. It's the perfect place to hide them."

He was going to be stuck on an island? A huge turtle island...that can move? Naruto winced at that, was the sky falling or what. If he was put there, he wouldn't be able to escape and if he couldn't do that, then he wouldn't be able to help out in the war. Great.

"Do we all agree on this?" The Raikage asked, his eyes looking over all the Kages. Mifune agreed first, then Gaara, then Tsunade, and finally Mei, hesitantly that is. "Then we'll send them there two days from now."

Naruto closed his eyes and breathed. He had to calm down, if he didn't, then he was probably going to burst his cover and make a huge scene, something that he was desperately trying to avoid. He tried to just stay still and breathe but it didn't help him one bit – Naruto then decided to go into sage-mode, the process somehow calms him, the energy it brings calms him. So he did it, he closed his eyes tightly and stood so still that a bird might think that he was statue.

The energy filled his system instantly, bringing the peace he needed so desperately. But being in sage-mode meant that he was able to sense everyone, anything and everything. His eyes opened suddenly as he felt an ominous chakra. With lighting quick hands, Naruto grabbed a Kunai from the slots around his waist and threw it in the direction of the unknown chakra.

A black and white figure jumped as soon as the Kunai cracked the wall where the figure had blended in. In a blink of an eye, all the Kage and their bodyguards were up and on their guard. Though before action could proceed, the black and white figure had already blasted the door open and disappeared down the corridor.

No one moved for second before the Raikage moved and shouted out orders to capture the black and white creature.

"I know that thing," Mei said with her eyes narrowed. "Zetsu or whatever his name is, he's from Akatsuki."

"I remember him too," The Raikage stated. "He was the one who had interrupted the meeting in the Land of Steel with Madara."

"He's gone sir!" A Kumo ninja shouted as he barged into the room. He was breathless and sweaty. It must have been quite a chase.

The Raikage sighed and collapsed onto his seat, the other Kage's followed, but not as roughly. "We have to change plans," he suddenly said.

"But we can't," Mifune argued. "This strategy is the only way."

"Not that one," The Tsuchikage said grumpily. "He's talking about the Jinchuurikis. That thing probably heard about the turtle island, it's only smart for us to change location."

Mei gave Naruto a knowing smirk before turning over to the Kages. "I have a place to hide them."

**xXx**

**End of chapter 6**

So, how was it? Good, bad, readable?

If you enjoyed it then thanks, if you didn't, then it's my fault.

This chapter is pretty much the start of everything – The action, the drama, the everything basically. You could pretty much call this chapter the start of this story.

About this chapter:

I bet some of you thought that there was going to be some Sakura bashing, weren't you? Guess what, you guessed wrong. Character bashing is dumb and immature, and I will never ever do it in any of my stories, even if I despise the character. And after all, I am also a Narusaku fan, so bashing Sakura is out of the story.

About the war, well. I'm not planning to do it like Kishimoto, since his version is very...all-out, you could say. I like mine to be more towards strategy and less on man power, but I am still putting the whole resurrection thingy.

And note this – Sakura will play a big part in this story. I'm not going to tell you if it's going bad or good, you just have to find out.

See ya next time :)

PEACE!

-FOXSAGE-


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